Love and Chaos
by gerarg90
Summary: Erza hopes to find love in the form of a certain pink-haired dragon slayer, as adventure and hilarity ensues. But soon a new ally appears, along with grim warnings of a looming danger greater than Zeref himself! NatsuxErza as well as other pairings and OCs. (On Hiatus.)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 : Memories

**A/N: Hey all, this is my very first fan fic. After reading through a lot of the stories on here (mostly NatsuxErza ones x3), I was suddenly inspired to write my own. I'm new to this, so don't be too rough on me.**

**Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

**Fairy Hills**

_Sadness. Regret. Emptiness..._

_Loneliness..._

_A dream, a constant dream. A never-ending nightmare.._

_Wake up..wake up.._

_PLEASE...let me...WAKE UP!_

"Ah!"

Carla suddenly woke up eyes wide, panting and breathing heavily, her heart pounding. She looked around, wondering if she was truly awake. She scanned the bedroom through the darkness, searching for her partner while her eyes adjusted to the dark. She smiled softly as her eyes caught a glimpse of blue hair shimmering as the moonlight reflecting off it.

'_Wendy..thank goodness..its been a week since the Grand Magical Games have ended, but I guess I'm still a little shaken..'_

The white Exceed moved quietly over to the sleeping Sky Maiden, the Sky Dragon Slayer. She quickly giggled as she heard Wendy mumble something incoherent in her sleep, then turned over facing her while she continued mumbling. Carla took a good look at her partner, and the changes she's gone through.

Wendy was nineteen now, her small petite body quickly bloomed into that of a beautiful young woman over the last seven years. Her face was a spitting image of her Edolas counter-part, with a more mature and refined looked, long silky blue hair that reached her backside. Her legs were slim yet muscular, giving her a very fit and toned look. Her assets grew to reasonable proportions, to say the least. They rivaled those of the Great Titania, Erza Scarlet (In Carla's opinion), while her smooth, white skin gave her a healthy glow that attracted the attention of all the males wherever she went.

_'Now that I think about it..she never would have matured like this if I hadn't convinced her then..' _the white Exceed thought to herself.

Carla remembered that day seven years ago, when Wendy was approached by that man who claimed he was Mest Gryder and asked her to be is partner for the S-Class exam. Despite the white Exceed's protests, Wendy was determined to help out Mest, after he conveniently mentioned that he was Mystogan's disciple. Thankfully, after Carla had broken down into tears pleading that Wendy stay, the young dragon slayer finally gave in, knowing that her partner and friend was truly worried about her well-being. Then, two days before the S-Class exam, Panther Lily realized who 'Mest' really was, and exposed him to the guild.

It turned out that 'Mest' was actually a spy sent from the newly reformed magic council to find any evidence to use against Fairy Tail to disband them. Master Makarov was furious to say the least. He had a mind to go up to the Chairman and give him a piece of his mind, but then relented when he realized this was the Magic Council they were talking about. He sighed and then pinched the bridge of his nose. After that mess was sorted out, the Master decided to continue with the S-Class exam as scheduled, giving the empty spot to Max the sand mage.

"C-Carla..are you wake..?"

The white Exceed was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts and back into reality, as her partner sat up and yawned, wiping the sleep from her face. She hadn't realized that it was morning already.

"Well good morning Sleeping Beauty." the stoic cat teased. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmhmm" Wendy replied, giving Carla a bright smile as she stretched her arms. "It's not like you to be up before I am."

The white Exceed frowned a bit, remembering her dream again. The Sky Maiden noticed, her smile quickly vanishing.

"Is everything okay Carla?" she asked, as the white Exceed collected her thoughts.

"I'm fine Wendy, I just had a hard time sleeping." she lied.

Wendy looked at her questionably, but then decided to drop it, deciding it was better to just let it go for now. She smiled again when she suddenly heard Carla's stomach grumble, as she giggled at her partner. The white Exceed turned around with a quick huff, slightly embarrassed.

"Come on." the bluenette chirped as she stood up from her bed. "Let's go get breakfast before we meet up with Natsu-san and the others at the guild."

Carla smiled and nodded in agreement.

'_It would only worry her if I told her about my dream anyways..'_ she thought to herself.

"Besides." the bluenette began. "I'm sure once you see Happy, you'll feel muuuuuuch better, since you liiiiiiiike him."

Wendy gave her friend a sly grin before getting pegged in the head with one of her pillows. The white Exceed glared at her, blushing madly with a tick mark on her head.

"I DO NOT LIKE HAPPY!"

* * *

**Outskirts of Magnolia**

In the outskirts of Magnolia, a pink haired young man and his blue feline friend made their way towards their guild after an early morning training session. The Fire Dragon Slayer Natsu, smiled, his arms behind his head as he looked over to Happy, the blue Exceed, and gave him a wide grin.

"You think today's gonna be an exciting day, Happy?"

"Aye sir!" the blue Exceed chirped. "As long as me and you are together, everyday's even more exciting than the last!"

"Alright! No one can beat the great Salamander and the Nekomander! We're unbeatable! I'M ALL FIRED UP!" the Natsu yelled, with fire spewing from his mouth. They both started a mad dash towards their guild. As they approached closer to the city, they both noticed a flash of red hair before they came to a screeching halt. They were both greeted with the sight of the great Titania, Erza Scarlet staring into space..

"Erza?" they both quipped.

The scarlet haired mage seemed dazed. She had on odd expression on her face, while her cheeks were slightly pink and her brown eyes had that faraway look in them.

_'Is she day dreaming?'_ he thought to himself, smiling. _'Its actually kind of cute now that I think about it.'_

He was about to poke Erza in the cheek when she suddenly snapped back into reality, finally sensing their presence. "Forgive me, I didn't notice the two of you. Please, hit me!"

"Good morning to you too Erza." Natsu replied, ignoring the last part of her sentence. Erza shot back a glare, but then softened when Natsu turned back around and gave her his trademark grin. She smiled back, red dusting her cheeks.

"Are you okay Erza?" the pink mage asked, noticing her face slightly red, then got closer to get a better look at her, which made her blush even more. "Your face is awfully red."

Erza suddenly jumped back realizing how close he was to her face.

"N-n-nothing! It's nothing, just thinking about the guild and all that you know? We're number one again, whoo hoo!" the scarlet mage replied as she gave him a crooked smile that looked like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. He just looked at her quizzically. Happy on the the other hand caught on, giving her huge grin.

"Naaaaatsu, Erza liiiiii-" was all the blue Exceed could get out before Erza grabbed him by his tail, a menacing aura surrounding her. She gave him a death glare, her eyes conveying the message 'If you value your life, you'll keep quiet.' Happy could only nod before he was punted to an unknown part of forest, with Natsu running after him.

"I'm coming for ya Happy!" he yelled as he disappeared into the forest. Erza let out a sigh of relief. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest furiously as she looked in the direction Natsu ran off too.

"That was close..my secret was almost out" she said to herself. _'One of these days Natsu, I'm gonna tell you how I feel about you, and hopefully you'll feel the same way' _Erza thought as she smiled. Ever since the Tower of Heaven fiasco, when Natsu not only defeated Jellal Fernandes, her childhood friend who betrayed her and took her friends hostage, but also defied the odds and saved her from recklessly sacrificing herself to prevent the tower from violently exploding, she had begun to develop feelings for the clueless dragon slayer. She saw Natsu in a different light, his grin always made her heart skip a beat, and his carefree nature made her feel like she could be herself around him and not worry about feeling judged. Slowly she felt the armor around her heart slowly melt away. Yes, he was reckless at times, but what truly started to win her over was his determination, his ability to face every challenge head on and overcome it. She saw this yet again when they confronted Oracion Seis, when he defeated Zero, the guild master of Oracion Seis, and even though she wasn't there to witness the final moment, she didn't need to be to tell that he had won and he was safe.

What happened afterwards, Erza would never forget, not in a million years. When the Detention Corps of the Newly Reformed Magic Council arrived at the scene to detain the members of Oracion Seis, her heart nearly broke when she found out that the dark guild wasn't their true objective. They wanted Jellal, the man who infiltrated the Magic Council, fired Etherion, and then nearly resurrected Zeref, attempting to sacrifice everyone in the tower to do so. This time however, upon returning, Jella had lost all of his previous memories, and Erza realized that maybe she had a chance to help change him, to help awaken him from his nightmare. Unfortunately, Lahar, the head of the Detention Corps, was going to take him away to either be imprisoned for the rest of his life or to be executed. As they took him away, Erza could no longer hold herself back, but before she could do anything, someone else did.

"Jellal is our ally!"

Even to this day, those words still echo in her mind whenever she thinks back to that day. Natsu, of all people, was defending him. Defending _**Jellal**_**.** The man that tried to kill both her and Natsu. The man who killed Simon. The man who held her childhood friends hostage for eight years to complete that God-forsaken tower. Natsu was defending Jellal for _**her**_ sake. Erza stood there shocked as Natsu began fighting his way through the Rune Knights to get to Jellal. Before long, everyone had joined in and they each gave their reason to why Jellal was being unjustly arrested. Before things could escalate any further, she stopped Natsu and the others. As much as it pained her to see Jellal taken away, he still needed to atone for his sins. After they took Jellal away, she spent the rest of the night to herself, crying and letting out her feelings as the sun came up. She later found out from Gray and Lucy that Jellal helped Natsu defeat Master Zero by giving him the Flame of Rebuke, allowing Natsu to achieve Dragon Force. Erza then realized that what Natsu said before wasn't simply because he wanted Erza to be happy, he had genuinely accepted Jellal as his ally. His comrade. Her feelings for Natsu grew even stronger.

Erza soon found herself in front of the Fairy Tail guild. As she looked up at her home, her family, she couldn't help but smile.

_'Against Grimoire Hearts, against Master Hades, against Sabertooth, and even against Acnologia...you never gave up, you never backed down. You always faced them, even when you had no power, even when you had no strength left, you stood tall..even when we lacked the courage to move forward, you stood up for all of us and gave us the courage to keep on fighting..that's why I've come to have these feelings for you..that's why I've come to love you..Natsu Dragneel'_

"I'm glad I met you.." she said softly before entering the guild.

* * *

**20 Minutes later**

"Oi, what was Erza's problem?" Natsu asked as he and Happy made their way through Magnolia. The blue exceed simply shuddered when remembered the glare Erza had given to him.

"Aye..I think she was in a bad mood." the blue cat replied, hoping Natsu would forget all about it by the time they got to the guilt. But this was _**Natsu**_. The stubborn, thick-headed, clueless idiot that he had some how come to love. He could only pray that Natsu would, at the very least, invoke Titania's wrath solely on himself. As much as Happy loved him, he still wanted to live to see another day.

"Eh, I guess you're right." the pink haired mage replied, suprising his feline friend, "I'll ask her about it later, but for now, lets go find a job, its been a few days since we've been on one." Happy couldn't help bt smile.

"Aye! Lets invite Erza, Lucy, Gray, Wendy and Carla." the blue Exceed chirped.

"Hoho, Carla, huh?" Natsu replied, slightly elbowing Happy and giving him a sly grin as his feline friend started blushing.

"A-aye, its been a while since I've seen her.." he admitted, as he twiddle his thumbs. Natsu let out chuckle as he patted the blue Exceed on his head.

"Don't worry bud, I'm rooting for ya!" he cheered Happy as he gave him a thumbs up and a huge, goofy grin. The Exceed couldn't help but return a smile as he felt his fighting spirit rise.

"Aye! Now I'm getting fired up!" Happy said confidently, as he raised his hand high. Natsu couldn't help but feel proud for his adopted son, as a small tear came to his eye.

"That's the spirit Happy!"

"Let's go find the rest of Team Natsu!"

"Aye sir!"

As the duo made their way made their way to the guild, they were unaware that someone or something was watching them. Amidst one of the rooftops, a shadowy figured appeared.

"Natsu Dragneel.." the figure spoke, its voice distorted. "The Fire Dragon Slayer..yes, your power is just what we need..Wendy Marvel..Gajeel Redfox..we'll need all of your powers.."

A creepy smile slowly crept across it's face, bearing sharp fangs, before dissipating into nothing.

It wasn't long before everyone's favorite pink haired dragon slayer busted through the doors to the guild..literally. They all glared at Natsu and Happy, who walked in like nothing was wrong. _Honestly, how thick is this guy? _They all thought simultaneously. At least he was in a good mood. When he's in a bad mood..well, let's not go there.

"Hey, walking matchstick!" yelled Gray at his long time rival.

"You say something, Frosty the perv?!" Natsu retored.

"Who you calling a perv, napalm breath?!" this time butting heads with him.

"Go Gray-sama!" Juvia added from the sidelines.

Lucy just watched from the bar and sighed. _'Right off the bat, eh?'_ she thought to herself. Honestly, its like they were both created for the sole purpose of beating the crap out of each other. While most of the guild found their bickering and fighting entertaining, she could only fear for her life after many brushes with death due to their idiotic fights.

"They're as lively as ever I see." replied a voice from behind the bar. Lucy looked up at to see Mirajane giving her the usual smile that seemed to bend the very laws of nature. Seriously, how does she do it?

"I just wished they weren't so energetic all time." replied the celestial mage.

"But if they weren't like this all the time, this guild would be very dull, don't you think?"

Lucy just stared blankly at the white haired mage.

"They're like a force of nature Mira, there's no stopping them once they get into it!" the blonde complained. "This place would've been long gone before I had a chance to see it, if it wasn't for Erza..oh God, and Erza..when she doesn't get her strawberry cake..dear God, its like she's an animal sometimes, vicious and scary as hell, who can't control herself and she's right behind me, isn't she?"

Mirajane just gave the blonde a smile that said 'Good luck.' Lucy slowly turned around, coming face to face with death itself. With a dark aura surrounding her, Erza glared at Lucy. But it wasn't her typical death glare that she gave to Natsu and Gray every time they fought, no sir. This was a glare that pierced one's very soul, slowly and painfully breaking it down. Everyone in guild stopped what they were doing and froze. Happy stopped munching on the fish he was eating, who for some reason had a never ending supply of it in his green backpack. Even Natsu and Gray stopped fighting, their fists millimeters away from hitting the other's face. Everyone just watched the two, waiting to see what happens next. Lucy looked like she was stuck in a repeating cycle of dying from fear, then coming right back to life, only to die again over and over.

"E-E-rza! H-hey, how a-re you?" the celestial mage squeaked as she tried force a smile, but was failing horribly. _'Please don't kill me! I'm too young to die!'_

* * *

**Streets of Magnolia**

"So how are things going between you and Happy, Carla?" teased Wendy. She was wearing a white tank top with a small coat similar to Natsu's vest, with yellow and blue stripes. Her lower wear consisted of a pair of black shorts and white sandals.

"Why are you asking me that? I don't care what happens to him!" the white Exceed retorted, her bright red face betraying her words. The bluenette could only giggle. Carla missed the days when Wendy was still really shy, at least she never teased her about Happy then. Boy does time fly.

"Well, since we officially became a part of Natsu-san's team, you should do your best to get along with our other teammates." she said a-matter-of-factly.

A flaming idiot, a perverted stripper, an over dramatic blonde, and a raging red head. How Wendy every convinced her to be a part of _**that**_ team, she'll never know.

_'I suppose Happy **is** the only normal one.'_ the white Exceed thought to herself. She had already given up on Wendy. Since she gained some much-needed self-confidence, she teased Carla non-stop about Happy. Though she wouldn't admit it, the white Exceed didn't mind it that much, were it not for her pride. Suddenly, a grin formed on the white Exceed's face. '_Two can play at this game.'_

"Me and Happy aside, how are things between you and Natsu?" she smirked, elbowing Wendy.

"W-w-hat do you mean, me and N-N-Natsu-san?" the bluenette squealed, her face red as she flailed her hands infront of her face in a desperate attempt to hide her ever growing blush. Carla could only smile in satisfaction. Although Wendy was more confident, her composure always fell apart at the mention of her and Natsu together.

"Oh, you know, ever since we became a part of his team, you've had a hard time keeping your eyes off of him." the white Exceed mused.

"C-Carla!" Wendy squeaked, her face was now a shade of red that would rival even Erza's scarlet hair. Carla couldn't hold it anymore and started laughing non-stop. Wendy just glared at her, pouting.

"I'm sorry Wendy." she chuckled, wiping some tears from her eyes. She gave the bluenette another wide grin.

Suddenly, they both stopped what the were doing, feeling an ominous feeling in the air that made them both shiver.

_'Someone's watching us.'_ the bluenette thought as her eyes scanned her surroundings. Before she could find the source, the ominous feeling disappeared as quickly as it came. She glanced over at her feline friend and stood silent for a moment, but before she had a chance to speak, someone else did it for her.

"Did you feel that, Lily?"

"Yes, it was odd..it felt like someone was watching us."

"What's even weirder is that it had no scent to it, whatever the hell it was."

Wendy turned around as Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer and his Exceed partner Panther Lily made their way towards their current position. She felt slightly more at ease that she wasn't the only one who sensed that thing's presence.

"Yo, shrimp, did you feel that?" Gajeel greeted, much to Wendy's annoyance.

"I'm not a shrimp!" she retorted, before giving a huff and looking the other way. "This is why Levy thinks you're a stupid jerk!"

Gajeel's eye twitched as he opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Lily and Carla only exchanged smirks as they watched the two Dragon Slayers interact. Poor Gajeel.

"You've been hanging around Salamander and his crew again, haven't you?! They're a bad influence!"

"Oh?" Wendy grinned. "Since when do you tell me what to do? Mr. 'I can't sing even if my life depended on it!'."

Gajeel's mouth hung open, shocked. The days of the cute little shy Dragon Slayer with a big smile were long gone. Oh, how he missed those days. Now what he had to contend with was, in his opinion, a female version of Natsu Dragneel. _'This is messed up.'_ Gajeel wondered who he must've pissed off in his previous life to end up in this situation. After letting out a sigh, he gave Wendy a serious look as her expression turned serious as well.

"Yes, I felt it too..someone was watching us, but for some reason they wanted us to know we were being watched." she replied as she crossed her arms.

Gajeel thought for a moment, before his lips formed a huge grin.

"Geehee." he replied with his trademark laugh. "It's about time things started getting interesting again, I was getting bored out of my mind."

Wendy and the two exceeds only sweat dropped, as they sighed. _'Raring to go, huh? Looks like I'm not the only one being influenced by Natsu-san.'_

"Come Lily." the Iron Dragon Slayer glanced at his partner. Lily nodded in response and followed him.

"See you two at the guild." the black Exceed bid as he dissapeared from sight, leaving the two women to their thoughts.

"Well, no sense standing around here while someone out there is plotting against us." Carla spoke up. "We should head to the guild as well, maybe the others felt it too."

Wendy nodded in agreement. "Maybe Natsu-san might know what's going on."

"Oh? Eager to see Natsu now, are we?" the white Exceed teased before Wendy's face turned as red as a tomato.

"CARLA!"

* * *

**Welp, there's the first chapter of my first fan fic. It will mainly focus on NatsuxErza, but it will also focus on other possible relationships, as well as the perspectives the others have about said pairing. I decided made Wendy the same age as Erza to act as a love rival in later chapters, in which chaos and hilarity will ensue, since she also has feelings for our pink-headed friend. Let me know what you liked, what you didn't like and what should be improved. I appreciate criticism. :3**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Feelings

**A/N: Well, here's the second chapter** **of 'Love and Chaos.' I want to quickly say thank you to all the people who left me a review, I really appreciate them. :3 I also want to point out that although this is primarily a NaZa story, I will focus on other characters and couples. Just thought I'd make it clear for some people. Hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed typing it. :D**

**Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

**Fairy Tail**

_'I should've stayed home today..' _Lucy thought grimly as she sat at Team Natsu's table, her face flushed with embarrassment while everyone in the guild stared at her. She was wearing a skimpy neko suit, courtesy of Titania. _'You should have just killed me Erza..'_

_"_Come on Lucy, cheer up!" Natsu slapped the celestial mage on the back, earning him an irritated response in return.

"Aye!" chirped Happy.

"Both of you have no idea how embarrassing this is.."

"And?" Erza urged.

"...Nya."

"Good." the red-head replied as she continued eating a piece of strawberry cake.

After profusely apologizing to Erza and promising to buy her a strawberry cake each day for the rest of her life, Erza decided to forgive Lucy on two conditions: One, she must wear the neko suit for the next two weeks in the guild and on jobs, no excuses, and two, she must also say 'Nya' at the end of her sentences. Lucy grumbled as she tried to ignore the stares of the other members, especially the more perverted ones.

"This sucks, nya.." Lucy complained.

"Are you saying I'm not generous?" Erza asked coldly, making the young blonde shudder.

"Nya, nya! You're very generous, nya!" Lucy flailed her arms in the air, making a cute kitten face.

"Way to get into character Lucy!"

"Real men get into character!" Elfman roared, making Lucy's eye twitch.

_'Idiots'_

Erza couldn't help but smile. She always thought it was really cute whenever the blonde mage was embarrassed. The scarlet haired mage let out a giggle when she saw Happy declare that he'd help Lucy get into character even more by offering her a fish. Lucy, in response, started chasing after him, attempting to strangle the blue Exceed. It seems the poor little guy never gets a break.

"Ahh! Help me! Neko-Lucy is trying to kill me!"

"Don't call me 'Neko-Lucy' you damn cat, nya!" she hissed.

"Oh? She's more into this than I thought" Gray smirked.

"Gray, your clothes." Cana pointed out.

"Oh crap!"

"I found your clothes Gray-sama!" Juvia cheered happily.

Erza simply shook her head. She looked around the see where Natsu was at, noticing he was no longer at the table. She glanced over across the room and saw the pink haired mage sitting with Elfman and Levy, recounting the fight he had with Sting and Rogue at the Grand Magical Games. _'He's grown pretty strong..but he's still a kid inside.'_ She smiled and continued staring at Natsu, slowly drifting into space again. Erza was unaware that Wendy and Carla were trying to greet her.

"Erza-san? Are you okay?"

"She looks like she's day dreaming. How cute."

Wendy tilted her head as Carla let out a sigh. They had hoped to ask Erza if she had felt anything strange earlier, but weren't receiving any kind of response in her trance-like state. The white Exceed simply shook her head at the poor woman.

_'I wonder what's going through her head.' _Wendy thought curiously.

* * *

**Erza's Mind **

As Erza continued staring at Natsu, he suddenly turned to face her, much to her surprise. The pink haired mage was handsome in her eyes, his pink hair, his big grin, that scaly scarf and his toned body. He gave Erza a charming smile that almost made her melt in her chair before he got up and started making his way towards her. Erza felt her heart beat faster with each passing second. As Natsu kept walking towards her, she couldn't help but stare in awe at his approaching figure, a blush slowly creeping across her cheeks. Her heart was pounding furiously against her chest, as she felt her body temperature rise uncontrollably, as if his approaching presence was slowly setting her heart ablaze. When Natsu was within a few feet of her, Erza suddenly felt flustered as a massive blush dominated her face. She quickly and nervously looked down at the table, attempting to avert his gaze.

"Erza.." Natsu said in a warm voice that sounded so sweet to Erza's ears.

The scarlet mage felt her heart skip a beat, as she looked up to meet his gaze.

"Y-y-yes N-Nats-su?" she stammered, trying to keep her composure.

Natsu gently grabbed Erza's hands together and pulled her to her feet. Her legs felt weak, as if they would give in at any moment.

"I've been wanting to tell you something..something that's been on my mind for a while now.."

Her heart nearly stopped.

"W-what did you want to tell me?" she squeaked causing Natsu to smile.

"Erza..I have feelings for you.."

"F-f-f-feelings?"

Natsu placed one hand under her chin as his face moved in closer to Erza's, before he gave her a sweet and tender kiss on the lips.

"I love you..Erza." Natsu said with a smile.

Erza could have sworn her heart was about to burst out of her chest. Natsu chuckled as he wiped a strand of hair from her face. "Beautiful." he whispered softly.

Erza's legs finally gave in as she fell forward into Natsu's arms. "Natsu.." she said passionately as he held her tightly, burying her head in his chest. "I love you too.."

* * *

**Reality**

"Is this what Erza does in her spare time?" Wendy wondered.

"Honestly. Just look at her, staring into space like she doesn't have anything else to..wait, is she drooling? She is!" the white Exceed suddenly pointed out as drool began dripping from Titania's mouth.

Wendy decided to grab Erza by the shoulders and shake her, albeit lightly.

"Erza-san, snap out of it." the bluenette continued shaking her. Suddenly, Erza snapped back to reality as she whipped her head around frantically, wondering where Natsu disappeared to before realizing that it never actually happened. She let out a disappointed sigh as she glanced over to see the pink haired mage sitting at the same table.

"It was all just a dream.." Erza moaned.

Wendy and Carla looked at her curiously.

"Um, Erza-san? Is everything alright?" the blue haired dragon slayer asked.

The scarlet mage suddenly realized she was being talked to. "Oh, Wendy, Carla, I didn't notice you there." Erza replied. "How are the both of you?"

"We're fine." the white Exceed replied. "So do you want to tell us why you were just sitting there staring into space, drooling?"

Erza stared at them puzzled for a moment, as the two of them looked down at her hands. Erza quickly looked down and examined herself. There were streaks of drool sliding down her gauntlets, as well as on the table. Erza sat their in silence before her brain processed what she just saw. _'I WAS DROOLING!'_ the thought suddenly shot across her mind. _**She**_ of all people had drooled! Carla studied Erza's face for a moment before raising an eyebrow.

"Erza..were you thinking about someone?" the white Exceed asked.

Then it hit Erza like a sack of bricks. Was she that obvious?

"You did seem a pretty happy.." the blunette replied. Now the sack was full of sharp objects. On fire.

_'This is bad, very, very, very bad. I can't let anyone find out, not yet! It will ruin everything!'_ Erza's mind began thinking frantically._ 'I need to think of something and fast!'_

"Erza-san?" Wendy tilted her head.

The scarlet mage then took a deep breath before taking on her usual calm demeanor and stoic expression. "I was day dreaming about the best strawberry cake in all of existence." she began. "I was so delicious that I couldn't help but drool at the thought of taking the next bite." Erza clenched her fist as tears streamed down her cheeks, her eyes filled with stars. "It was sooo good.." She was happy on the outside, but deep down she was scolding herself.

_'I'm sorry Natsu, but I had to do it so they wouldn't find out! This never would have happened if I hadn't been day dreaming about you. I'll have to properly punish myself later..' _she thought guiltily.

"Ah, well next time I won't disturb you then Erza-san." Wendy smiled sympathetically. Erza let out a sigh of relief.

"Hmph. If you say so." Carla quipped. _'You might be able to fool Wendy, but you won't fool me. You're hiding something.'_

Carla suddenly froze, wide-eyed as a familiar feeling came to her. _'Another premonition.'_ Everything was very fuzzy this time. All she could make out was a young man with grayish hair that was swept back, with light blue eyes. He seemed to be the same age as Natsu. The look on his face showed that he was dead serious. The image was becoming clearer, though a lot of the details were still very obscure. He was wearing a white breastplate shaped in the image of a dragon's head over a black, long sleeve coat with white flaps going from the base of his neck to the tips of his shoulders, like shoulder plates in an armor set. Around his waist, he wore an azure colored sash and his pants were similar to Natsu's, with the exception of being black instead of white. On his hands, the young man appeared to be wearing a pair of white gauntlets that covered up to his elbows, the tips of the gauntlets sporting dragon-like claws, while on his feet and shins he wore a pair of greaves reaching almost to his knees, giving the appearance of dragon talons on his feet. The area around him seemed heavily damaged. Before Carla could see anything else, the vision ended.

"Carla, are you okay? Carla!" Wendy repeated worriedly. She shook her feline friend gently before she started coming back. Carla rubbed her face a bit before looking back at Wendy.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." she assured Wendy. "I just spaced out a little."

_'That was the vaguest premonition I've ever had..usually there's a series of images, but this time there was only one..it doesn't really tell me much..'_ the whited Exceed thought.

"She seems to be in deep thought." she heard Wendy whisper to Titania, making her ear twitch. "Maybe she's thinking about Happy?"

Erza nodded in agreement. "I wonder if she drools when she thinks of him.."

"I DO NOT DROOL WHEN I THINK ABOUT HAPPY!" Carla roared, blushing furiously. Everyone in the guild stopped what they were doing and stared at the fuming white Exceed. She suddenly regretted saying that just now. Everyone in guild started laughing, while Happy suddenly appeared next to Carla, wooing over her. She let out a sigh, but then smiled, much to Happy's delight. Erza and Wendy exchanged smiles, giggling. Natsu grinned as he watched the two Exceeds from the other side of the room.

"Those two get along well, don't they?" Levy chirped.

"Yes..Carla won't admit it, but she likes it when Happy is around her." Mirajane added.

"Real men like company!" Elfman yelled.

"I'm a woman!" the white Exceed roared as she threw a mug across the room, hitting Elfman right between the eyes and knocking him over. Natsu fell over in his seat, roaring with laughter.

"Nice shot Carla!" Happy praised as he jumped in the air.

"Thank you." she replied proudly, blushing slightly. Before, she would have turned around and ignored Happy, but she warmed up to him after the events in Edolas took place. Carla now enjoyed the blue Exceed's presence, as well as his silly antics. Makarov could only smile as he watched silently from above on the second floor. Why shouldn't he? Fairy Tail was once again the top guild in Fiore, thanks to Natsu, Erza and the rest of his 'brats', as he liked to call them. With the money they won at the Grand Magical Games, they regained the building where Fairy Tail was previously located and now they were getting more jobs and even more members than ever before. The sixth Master couldn't be happier.

_'Things are finally looking up for Fairy Tail once again.' _he thought proudly, as he let out a huge smile.

"It's good to see my brats so lively in the morning!" Makarov laughed heartily, loud enough for everyone in the guild to hear.

"Good morning Master!" the guild replied in unison, as the sixth Master beamed, a tear coming to his eye. He made his way down to the first floor, and then jumped on top of one of the tables.

"I have a very important announcement to make this morning.." he began, as the guild waited in interest. "..As of today, I'm making a new, mandatory dress code! All the female members must wear either a neko girl outfit or a bunny girl outfit!" Makarov now had a lecherous grin on his face while everyone else fell face first to the floor, sweat dropping.

_'Is that what it was?'_ they all thought.

"Master.." a cold voice called out suddenly that sent chills up and down Makarov's spine. "I thought you had an **_important_** announcement to make." Mirajane's eyes darkened, making the sixth Master sweat nervously.

"Y-yes, I was just joking! It was pretty funny, wasn't it?" he laughed halfheartedly while the rest of the guild just stared at him.

_'Lecherous old man.' _they thought.

"Anyways.." Makarov coughed, clearing his throat. "Natsu, Erza, there's something I'd like to talk about to you and the rest of your team. Gajeel, you might want to hear this as well."

Gajeel sat up in his chair, a few nuts and bolts dangled from his mouth before he started chewing on them.

"What is it Master?" Erza asked curiously, the others watching patiently.

"A strange request came in this morning from a client in Crocus..he's a very wealthy business owner it would seem." he explained. "He's into ancient artifacts and such, and it seems he found something in the sea town of Marza, inside a cave his men were mining."

"I've heard of that town." Lucy spoke up. "It's a few miles west of Crocus."

Lucy suddenly felt Erza's piercing gaze stare holes into the back of her head. "Nya." Erza nodded, signaling the master to continue.

"Indeed. He wants a group of mages to help his men escort the object they found and bring it back to Crocus, and he's willing to pay quite a bit for it too. About 1,000,000 jewel."

"That's a little suprising." Gray added, suddenly interested.

"Hm.." Natsu thought for a moment. "It must be something really important if he's willing to pay that much."

"Indeed. But what's really strange about this is that he's specifically requesting the help of a certain type of mage..more to the point, he's looking for Dragon Slayers." Natsu and Wendy both looked at each other as Makarov said this. They looked over at Gajeel, who seemed uninterested at the sudden revelation.

"Did he explain why he's looking for Dragon Slayers specifically?" Wendy asked.

"No, it seems you'll have to ask him that yourself." Makarov sighed, before looking up at Natsu and Erza. "So what do the two of you think?"

Both mages looked at each other and blinked, making Makarov smile. Normally, he would only ask Erza her opinion on such matters, but ever since he watched Natsu take on Sabertooth's Sting and Rogue at the games and come out victorious, he began seeing Natsu in a different light. Natsu was stronger than ever before, and he also showed Makarov that he's capable of strategic thinking and planning, observing his opponent's moves in the heat of combat much like Erza. Makarov remembered the first time he introduced Natsu to the guild. Ah, the boy who was always so brash and stubborn, always challenging opponents who were far stronger than him. Even though he was beaten, he would challenge them again and again, never backing down. Makarov then looked at the young man standing before him.

_'You've grown strong, Natsu, and with time, you'll grow stronger still..I'm sure your father, Igneel, is very proud of you..'_ he thought, as he looked at Wendy and Gajeel. _'Grandine, Metalicana, I'm sure you're just as proud of your children as well..'_

"Well.." Natsu began, pulling the sixth Master back from his thoughts. "I'm pretty curious about this request, I want to find out why this guy wants the help of Dragon Slayers so badly. I'm definitely in." He looked at Wendy, as she nodded in agreement. "Also, I think it would be a good idea to have Erza, Lucy and Gray come with us. We might get into a situation where Dragon Slayer Magic can't help us." Natsu put his hands behind his head before going on. "After all, even if it's just a simple escort request, you never know when something unexpected might happen, right?" Makarov grinned at the young man's words.

Everyone else, however, was stunned as they stared at Natsu, who flashed them a huge grin. Gray and Lucy were shocked. Even Erza was surprised.

"**WHAAAT?!**" the entire guild roared suddenly.

"Did he just acknowledge Gray's strength?"

"Natsu admits that he might not be strong enough for a job?"

"A true man admits his weaknesses!"

"Maybe someone kidnapped him and they replaced him with a clone!"

"Who are you and what have you done with Natsu!"

A visible tick mark formed on Natsu's head as he growled. "Hey.."

Erza smiled as she looked at the pink haired mage._ "For Natsu to acknowledge Gray and Lucy's strength and admit that his own powers may not be enough..its pretty suprising.'_ Erza thought to herself. _'It seems he's actually matured a bit..I wonder what else about him has changed when I wasn't looking..'_

"So..does that mean that you and Gray are gonna get along from now on, nya?" Lucky asked.

"Like hell I am!" Natsu roared. "He might be strong, but he's still a perverted ice freak!"

Gray butted heads with Natsu once again. "You wanna go bud?!"

"Yea, I've got a few minutes to spare anyways! Bring it!" Natsu roared as they began to pummel each other.

_'He's the real Natsu alright..'_ the guild thought in unison.

"ENOUGH!" Makarov bellowed, as the two rivals relented and settled for glaring at each other. The sixth Master simply sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. _'Natsu still has a long way to go however..' _he thought. "Now that we've heard Natsu's thought on the matter.." Makarov began, turning his attention to Titania. "What about you Erza?" She thought for a moment, before smiling at the Master.

"I agree with Natsu, Master. Having a variety of skill sets would definitely be of help if we find ourselves in any kind of trouble." the scarlet haired mage replied. It was also a chance for her to spend some more time with Natsu. _'And maybe, just maybe..'_

Makarov grinned. "Then its settled, I'll go inform the client right away." the sixth Master replied. He hopped off the table and made his way back to his office. The rest of the guild went back to their usual business as the members of Team Natsu gathered at their table. They discussed a few things before they all decided to head to their respective homes to gather their things before leaving.

"Alright, we will all meet up at the train station in one hour." Erza replied. "Don't be late."

Natsu jumped up on the table, fire spewing from his mouth. "ALRIGHT, I'M GETTING FIRED UP!" Erza and Wendy giggled, while Gray and Lucy shook their heads. Happy and Carla both smiled as they watched Natsu's child like excitement. Even if he matured a bit, Natsu was still Natsu, and they wouldn't have him any other way. "Let's go Happy!" the pink haired mage yelled as he jumped off the table and ran towards the door.

"Aye sir!" Happy chirped, as he followed suit.

Natsu stopped at the door suddenly, then looked over at Gajeel. "You coming too?"

Gajeel just growled irritably. "As if. I've got better things to do than play babysitter for some old piece of junk." the iron dragon slayer replied as he bit into some silverware, before a grin formed on his face. "Plus I don't want to get caught hanging around you Salamander, or your little team."

Natsu just sighed, shrugging it off. "Suit yourself. Come on Happy."

"Aye!" his feline friend replied as he followed after his pink haired friend. Gajeel was about to go back to eating his silverware when he suddenly felt someone smack him in the back of the head. He turned around to see Levy standing behind him, with her arms crossed and a serious look on her face.

"The hell was that for?" Gajeel growled.

Levy just turned away. "Jerk." she said with a huff.

Gajeel's eye twitched before he looked at Wendy. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked the bluenette.

"Idiot." she replied, then walked away with Carla following suit.

"You too?!" he roared. The Iron Dragon Slayer just couldn't get a break today. He leaned back in his chair before he felt someone's hand on his shoulder, their grip suddenly becoming strong. Now what?

"Gajeel.." the voice spoke, its tone ice-cold. He slowly turned to see Mirajane, her eyes shadowed while her right one glowed red. **"Why is half of the guild's silverware missing?"** she had him a death drip. Gajeel suddenly regretted not going with Team Natsu.

_'This is messed up.'_

While the sounds of punches and screams filled the guild, no one had noticed that a very peculiar looking spider was watching everything unfold.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

"Rambunctious, aren't they?" a deep, masculine voice spoke, his face obscured by a black hood.

"Hm?" another voice spoke, this one feminine.

A tall feminine figure rose, before her body became shrouded by darkness, covering her like a cloak. They were inside a cave, dimly lit by a single light that would flicker every so often. "If you mean loud and obnoxious, then yes." she replied, yawning. "Although that Salamander guy does sound pretty cute." she mused seductively.

"He don't sound very tough." a third voice spoke, this one belonging to a young man. "I bet I could kick his ass."

"I wouldn't underestimate Natsu Dragneel." the older man retorted. "He's much stronger then you give him credit for. Titania and the Sky Maiden are no pushovers either."

The younger man growled as he laid down on the floor, his face covered with a mask that resembled a serpent's face. "Tsk. Whatever. They're all weaklings to me." He grumbled, putting his hands behind his head.

"Are you still grumpy because of those dark guilds you destroyed earlier?" the woman teased.

"They were all weaklings. Ever since two corners of the Balam Alliance were wiped out, the remaining dark guilds turned into a bunch of sissies." he sneered.

The woman giggled. "You can thank Salamander and his friends for that. I don't mind though, they ended up doing our work for us. Stopping Jellal and dismantling the R-system..taking out Master Zero and destroying Nirvanna..defeating the Seven Kin of Purgatory and eliminating Master Hades. They even stopped the Eclipse Plan that fool Arcadios was trying to put into motion. Things have been going pretty smooth for us. The only thing standing in our way now is Zeref."

"Once we acquire what we seek, even Zeref will be of no threat to us." the older man grinned, exposing a fanged smiled.

The young man grumbled. "I hear he's pretty powerful. I'd like to kick his ass, at least he'd be worth the effort."

"Zeref would wipe the floor with you in a second." the woman mused.

"Oh? You want to prove me wrong little girl?" he sneered in response, standing up. He put his hands together as dark magic began to swirl around his body.

The woman only smiled. "Oh please, I'm much taller than you _**little**_ boy." She turned to face him, as the nails on her hands became shrouded in dark magic, becoming claw like appendages.

"That's enough." the older man said coldly. He stood up at his full height, towering over both of them. He began emitting a dark blue aura. "We don't have time for games at the moment."

They both relented, the young woman's claws disappeared while the young man sat against a wall with his hands behind his head. The woman sighed and decided to change the topic. "That aside, I've been wanting to ask you something. Do you really trust that Kornel fellow?"

"I don't." he replied flatly. "But what I do trust is his information. He has a vast information network in Fiore and in various other kingdoms throughout the world, and so far his plan is going just as he said it would. So long as he continues supplying me with the necessary information, he will continue to have some significance to me." he paused for a moment, before deciding to tease his comrade. "Don't tell me that he frightens you?"

The woman crossed her arms. "No, it's not that. It's just that I can never tell what he's thinking. He's always just appearing and disappearing in here without warning. It creeps me out a bit."

The older man let out a laugh. "Creeped out?**_ You_**? That's rich."

The younger man interjected this time. "As much as I hate to say it, I agree with her. There's something off about that guy."

"Don't worry.." he assured both of them. "Once we get what we need, we'll have no more use for him. I'll personally see to it that he gets disposed of, properly. I won't let anyone interfere, not when we're this close.." he paused for a moment. "And once **_he_** awakens, _**he**_ will throw this world into utter chaos..even Zeref will bow before _**him**_, before our **_King_**!" the older man grinned menacingly, while his two companions let out maniacal laughs.

* * *

**Magnolia Train Station**

_'So..we meet again.' _Natsu thought to himself as he faced his worst enemy, yet again. He's beaten Lullaby, deafeated Jella, Master Zero and Master Hades, he even survived Acnologia's breath attack. But they all paled in comparison to what he was now facing. If Natsu could think of anything more torturous, more grueling than anything else in the world, this would be it.

"One of these days I will beat you!" he roared at the train, scaring a few people who were boarding it. Gray and Lucy shook their heads in annoyance, while the others just smiled.

"Aye! That's the spirit Natsu!" Happy cheered as he flew around in circles.

"You have to admire their enthusiasm." Carla pointed out. "Natsu is a very optimistic one, alright."

Lucy looked at the two for a moment, then sighed. "That's great and all, but we should really get going before we miss our train, nya."

Everyone started to board the train, when they noticed that Natsu stopped right outside the door. "Hey cinder face, hurry up before you make us miss the train." Gray grumbled.

Natsu's eye twitched. "Hold on, I just need to prepare myself mentally for a minute and I'll be ready!" he yelled.

"Natsu, we don't have time to wait for you, hurry up and get on before we leave you behind, nya!" Lucy scolded.

_'It looks like I'll have to use 'that' again..' _Erza thought. She was about to drag him onboard, but then something happened that no one saw coming. Wendy had walked over to Natsu and then wrapped her arms around his right arm, pressing it against her well proportioned chest.

"It's okay Natsu-san, you can rest your head on my lap if you'd like." Wendy looked up at him and smiled.

_'I know its a bit sudden and frankly I'm really nervous, but I need to make a move before it's too late..I can't hesitate or else I'll lose Natsu-san to someone else. I'll need to be subtle about it though, since this is Natsu-san I'm dealing with. He might be a strong mage, but he is a little slow when it comes to girls and love..I'll just have to spend more time with him, and hopefully he'll start to notice my feelings for him.'_

Natsu blinked for a few seconds. "Really Wendy?" he asked, as she nodded telling him yes. "Ah, thank you, you're the best!" he praised, giving her a huge grin. Wendy blushed as she squeezed his arm tightly. She couldn't help but blush a little at her own boldness. Everyone else just stared at the scene that unfolded before them.

Ever since Natsu and the others returned from their seven-year time skip earlier in the year, they were amazed at how much Wendy had grown. Her personality was almost a complete turn around, the shy little girl they once knew was now confident and brave young woman, though her shy persona would surface whenever Carla teased the Sky Maiden about Natsu. That wasn't all either. During their absence she became quite powerful, having learned many offensive Sky Dragon Slayer techniques during her training. When they first got back to the guild, Natsu had immediately challenged Wendy to a fight to see how strong she had become. To everyone's surprise (and Gajeel's horror), she had completely overpowered the male Dragon Slayer with her brand of Dragon Slayer magic. Wendy had, without a doubt, become one of the most powerful female members in the guild. Even Erza acknowledged her strength, seeing the Sky Maiden as a potential rival even. She had also contributed to Fairy Tail's victory at the Grand Magical Games during the final event, where she, Natsu, Erza, Laxus and Gajeel took on the five members from Sabertooth's guild. After a long and grueling battle, they both decided they needed to finish the match quickly. Standing back to back, Natsu pointed his right fist towards their opponents while Wendy pointed her left fist in the same direction. Combining their powers, they unleashed their secret technique: **Fire Sky Dragon's Piercing Fang**, which launched a huge beam of concentrated Fire and Sky magic at their opponents. Needless to say, they were once again the number one guild in Fiore.

_'That was a rather bold move coming from Wendy.'_ Carla thought as she watched the two Dragon Slayers from inside the train. '_She'll need to stay strong though, there are still a few obstacles standing between her and Natsu.'_

Unfortunately, one of those obstacles was standing next to Carla, in the form on a jealous stricken red-head. Erza quickly got off the train, walked over to Natsu and wrapped her arms around his left arm, in an attempt to pull him away from Wendy.

"You don't have to burden yourself Wendy. As the team's leader, I will take responsibility for Natsu's motion sickness." Erza stated, trying harder to pull him away from the bluenette.

"It's okay Erza, really!" Natsu replied nervously. _'Atleast Wendy doesn't try to knock me out whenever my motion sickness kicks in..' _Unfortunately, Erza ignored him and continued pulling on his arm, squeezing tightly.

The Sky Maiden, however, wasn't going to give up that easily. "You shouldn't try to shoulder so much responsibility Erza-san, you should let the rest of us carry that responsibility as well." Wendy replied, as she pulled back. Erza was starting to get irritated.

"That's very thoughtful of you _**Wendy**_, but I'm quite used to shouldering such things." Erza replied, pulling harder. She was trying very hard not to let her anger seep out.

Wendy now had a tick mark on her head. "Oh, but I insist _**Erza-san**, _I think it would do you some good, having all that weight lifted off your shoulders." she smiled, trying her best not to try to pulverize the woman trying to take Natsu away as she pulled back harder. Another thing that's changed about Wendy is that once she has her sights set on something, she won't let anything or anyone get in the way, with the exception of Carla and Natsu.

Natsu was now beginning to feel a little nervous, as the two jealous women continued their game of tug-of-war with his arms. "Uh guys, we should hurry up and get on the train before it leaves." Natsu panicked, fearing he'll be ripped in half if things continue any further. Unfortunately his words fell on deaf ears, as the two women continued tugging on his arms more violently. They glared at one another.

_'You've always been my role model, Erza-san and I've looked up to you. I have a great deal of respect for you as one of the top mages in our guild. However, right now you are standing between me and Natsu-san, so prepare yourself! I will not back down Titania!'_

_'Ho ho, so wish to challenge me, Wendy? Indeed, you are a worthy opponent. You've grown quite powerful during our absence, and I acknowledge your strength as one of the very best in our guild. However, I've never backed down from a challenge, and I won't start now! I accept your challenge Sky Maiden!'_

Gray, Lucy, Happy and Carla all stood their staring at the three of them, their jaws hanging wide open. Natsu looked back and forth at the two girls, as he began sweating nervously at the intensity of their competitive spirits. _'They're both getting really fired up.'_ he sweat dropped. He then turned to the others for assistance.

"You're on your own flame brain."

"Have fun Natsu, nya!"

"Aye! Good luck Natsu!"

"I didn't even say anything yet!" Natsu roared.

"Who knew Salamander was quite the ladies man?" Carla teased him.

"You too?! Ahhh! Forget it!" he turned to Erza and Wendy, who were still locked in glaring match. Natsu could have sworn he could see electricity shooting out from their eyes. "Come on you two, the train's about to leave any second now." He said calmly. "We can't disgrace Fairy Tail's name be taking on this job and not showing up when we're expected to."

Both women considered his words for a moment, then looked up at him. "**Fine.**" they both said in unison. Everyone, including Natsu, sweat dropped. The three quickly boarded the train, with neither girl releasing their grip from the male Dragon Slayer's arms. The situation didn't seem improve for him when they sat down, as the Salamander found himself squished between Titania and the Sky Maiden, who continued their glaring match.

_'This is gonna be a long train ride..hopefully my arms will make it to by end of the day.' _Natsu sighed inwardly.

Gray, Lucy and the two Exceeds decided to sit in a different area to give the 'Ladies Man' some alone time with the two girls. After a few minutes of silence, Lucy decided to ask the question on everyone's mind.

"So..any one else here surprised about those two, nya?" she referred to Erza and Wendy.

"I knew that Wendy liked Natsu. I'd tease her about it every now and again. Though what she did earlier did surprise me." Carla said, crossing her arms. "Even though she's more confident now, she still couldn't help but feel shy around him from time to time. I suppose she figured that if she didn't do anything now, she'd lose Natsu to someone else. It must've been enough for her to cast her doubts and hesitation aside. But what really surprised me was Erza."

Happy decided to interject. "Aye! But if you think about it, Natsu and Erza have known each other for a looong time. They also have a lot in common when it comes to their past, so their relationship is different from the others. Natsu even risked his life to stop Erza from sacrifing herself when she was absorbed by the Tower of Heaven, and they've always looked out for each other since then. So it's really no surprise that she likes Natsu." the blue Exceed pointed out.

"Be that as it may, the bond between Natsu and Wendy is a bit different from the others as well." Carla began. "Remember, it was Wendy who decided to take part in that Oracion Seis mess for the sake of meeting Natsu. She was a shy little girl back then, but Natsu always seemed to influence her without even trying, giving her the courage to become stronger and more confident. She even risked her own life to heal him countless times, despite my protests." the white Exceed paused for a moment, before continuing. "Wendy has a great deal of faith in him. When we heard about what happened to you guys on Tenrou Island seven years ago, she was devastated, but she still had faith that you would all return, especially in Natsu. That was a turning point for her, as she began to train herself to be stronger and more confident, so that when Natsu returned, Wendy could face him as his equal."

"Well, I'd say she did a good job, nya." Lucy remarked, remembering how Wendy completely overwhelmed and overpowered Natsu during their first fight.

* * *

**Flashback: 3 Months**

Everyone in the guild had gathered outside, waiting anxiously as Natsu and Wendy prepared to face off. After the team from Tenrou Island returned after seven long years, everyone started throwing a party in celebration of their return. Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus had also dropped by to join in on the festivities. No sooner had Wendy returned from a job, had she immediately spotted Natsu starting another fight in the guild. Everyone watched in silence as tears began streaming down the Sky Maiden's face, before she lunged at the pink haired mage and hugged him with all her might. After telling the female Dragon Slayer that he's finally back and commenting on how much she's grown, Natsu immediately challenged her to a fight to see how strong Wendy had become, to which she accepted without hesitation. So now here they were, with the entire guild as their witnesses, as the Salamander and the Sky Maiden were ready to go at it.

"Wendy looks pretty serious." Lucy commented. "I'm still a little shocked at how different she is since the last time we saw her."

"Indeed." Makarov added. "In seven years, she's become quite the mage. I wonder how much her powers have grown.."

Ichiya sniffed the air for a moment. "Indeed, the parfum she's giving off is quite remarkable. Men."

"Well, I guess we were right when we said Wendy would grow up to be quite the babe all those years ago." Hibiki added.

Makarov now had a lecherous grin on his face. "Ho ho, you got that right!" the former Master yelled before he was pummeled into the ground by an angry Mirajane.

Erza crossed her arms. "What's more shocking to me was the fact that she accepted Natsu's challenge. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in her words as far as I could see."

"She must be quite confident in her abilities." Jura added. _'To think she's that same girl we met all those years ago..'_

"That brat better put up a decent fight." Gajeel muttered. "Salamander ain't no pushover." Laxus stood behind him with his arms crossed, watching silently.

"Speaking of which, have any of you guys seen what she can do now?" Lucy asked, turning to Macao.

The fourth Master shook his head. "We haven't actually. Since you guys disappeared, she's always been training by herself and taking on solo missions. We're in the dark about this as much as you guys are."

"Hm.." Lucy began to think. "Carla, do you know? You're her partner after all."

"You'll just have to wait and see." the white exceed replied, a confident smile on her face.

"If you're real men then you'll fight with all you've got!" Elfman roared, earning him sweat drops from the rest of the guild.

While everyone in the guild watched patiently, Natsu couldn't help but feel a shiver of excitement go up his spine.

"You know Wendy, I've always wanted to fight with you." Natsu stated. "I could tell that you had a great power inside of you just like me and Gajeel."

The Sky Maiden couldn't help but smile at his comment. "I had a lot of confidence issues back then. I was always hesitant in situations, and that held me back significantly." Wendy took a deep breath for a moment before continuing. "I was a burden to you Natsu, that's why I decided to change all that."

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "A burden? Wendy, I've never once thought of you as a burden. You've helped us many times with your support and healing magic. You were an especially a big help when we were fighting King Faust in Edolas. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be standing here today." Salamander pointed out with a smile.

Wendy was suddenly taken back by his comment. She was **_not_** expecting a praise like that. She looked at Natsu as he gave her a huge grin, causing her to blush.

"Thank you Natsu..you have no idea how much that means to me." Wendy replied smiling. She took a deep breath before taking on a fighting stance. "Now get ready Natsu! I won't hold back against you!"

Natsu had huge grin on his face, the kind he gets before fighting a powerful opponent. "Alright, I'm getting pumped!"

"Are you both ready?" Mirajane asked as she raised her hand. She could see the intensity in both of their eyes. They were ready.

"Begin!"

Before Natsu could even blink, Wendy was already in front of him, catching the pink haired mage slightly off-guard. "**Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!**" he roared, attempting to strike first. Natsu swung his right hand in a horizontal arc, as Wendy quickly ducked under the attack. Before he could even react, Wendy had already slammed her right fist into his gut. "**Sky Dragon's Hurricane Fist!**" she howled, as she sent the male Dragon Slayer sailing through the air into the nearby forest. Everyone watched with varying degrees of shock and disbelief. Lucy and Gray had their jaws hanging wide open, while Gajeel and Laxus looked like their eyes were about to pop out of their heads. Even Erza's eyes were as big as saucers. Carla grinned with a look of satisfaction.

_'She's trained hard these past seven years..all to show Natsu just how strong she has become.'_

A huge pillar of fire rose up from where Natsu had landed, scorching the trees in the vicinity. He stood up for a moment, wincing a little from the power of Wendy's attack. _'Damn, that was one powerful punch..she sent me flying a good ways too.'_ he thought as he looked at how far everyone was away now. He let out a huge grin. "That's freaking awesome!" his child like behavior took over once again. "I can't believe how strong she is now! Hell, she's probably stronger than Laxus now. Man!" Natsu righted himself as he cracked his knuckles. "NOW I'M FIRED UP! **Fire Dragon's Sword Horn**!" he roared as he launched himself back headfirst, flames engulfing his entire body.

_'Looks like Natsu-san's getting serious now.' _the Sky Maiden thought as she watched Natsu charging towards her. "Alright Natsu, here I come!" she yelled as she charged forward to meet him head on. "**Sky Dragon's Sonic Takedown!**" her body became engulfed with wind, as she sped towards Natsu. The others watched as both Dragon Slayers collided with one another, resulting in a massive explosion. Dust kicked up from the resulting collision, as Natsu skidded back a few feet before stopping.

'_Damn it, I can't see or smell anything with all this dust hanging around!' _he thought for a moment. _'I'm gonna have to rely on my hearing from now on.' _Natsu closed his eyes and concentrated, listening for any movement in the area as the dust slowly cleared. _'Behind me!' _He turned just in time to see Wendy_'s _left hand coming at a horizontal angle. "**Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!**" Natsu managed to bend backwards to avoid getting hit directly, though she still managed to graze his right cheek. "**Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!**" Natsu roared, attempting to strike Wendy before she could recover from her attack. Just as the attack seemed like it was going to connect, she jumped up and flipped over him, landing upside down on her right hand. She quickly spun around one-eighty degrees on her hand, driving her left heel into Natsu's right side. "**Sky Dragon's Talons!**" she yelled, sending Natsu tumbling against the ground.

Erza watched quietly at the ensuing battle. _'Her speed and accuracy are superb, and the power behind her attacks..its almost mind-boggling. Did our absence really push her to change this much?'_

"This is incredible!" Lucy commented as she watched Natsu being overwhelmed by the Sky Maiden. "Wendy's amazing!"

"Amazing? She's a monster!" Gray yelled, realizing there was now another person who was insanely strong like Laxus and Gildarts.

Laxus nodded in agreement. "She's on a whole different level now." the lightning mage calmly spoke. He watched silently as Natsu got back to his feet, though with some difficulty.

"Damn Wendy, that was one hell of a kick, I'll give you that much!" Natsu said cheerfully, despite his pain.

"Thank you Natsu-san." Wendy replied with a smile. "Do you still want to continue?"

Natsu let out a huge grin and laughed. "Hell yeah, I do! I'm having a blast!"

"Good." she replied. _'I'm having fun too Natsu-san. You're the only one who can make me feel like this.'_

Wendy readied herself as she watched Natsu jump back a few feet. He landed feet first, as he reared his head back, ready to launch his next attack.

"**Fire Dragon's Roar!**" he howled, a blast of fire burning its way towards the bluenette. Wendy couldn't help but smile, before she reared her head back in the same motion. "**Sky** **Dragon's Roar!**" she countered, as a massive vortex of wind tore through Natsu's flames, completely overpowering his attack. Natsu braced himself as her attack crashed into him, sending the male Dragon Slayer flying backwards a few meters before landing with a loud thud on the ground.

"Is..is it over?" Lucy finally spoke.

"Looks like it." Laxus replied. They all started running over to where Natsu was to see if he was alright, but then stopped suddenly when they saw he was trying to stand up.

"STAY BACK!" he roared, slamming his fist into the ground. "It ain't over yet!"

"You're hurt Natsu! You have to stop. It's over now!" Lucy argued, but Natsu ignored her.

_'Natsu..'_ Erza thought.

"Wendy, you have to stop this! You've already won!" Macao yelled. Wendy merely shook her head.

"No, the Natsu I know doesn't back down from any fight." she began. "He never gives up, he never quits. The only way he can grow stronger is if he keeps fighting. Isn't that right Natsu?"

Erza suddenly found herself feeling slightly jealous. _'They are both Dragon Slayers after all..they know each other better than anyone else, unlike me..'_

"Damn right you are." Natsu replied, getting back to his feet. He gave Wendy another huge grin. "I never give up, and neither should you!" he roared, making Wendy smile. "**Lightning-Flame Mode Activate!**" The Sky Maiden was shocked to see that lightning was now enveloping the male Dragon Slayer's body along with his flames. "**Lightning-Flame Dragon's Roar!**" he howled, firing a massive beam of fire and lightning three times the size of his normal roar as it sped towards his opponent. Wendy quickly pulled herself out of her shock. "**Sky Dragon's Heavenly Breath!**" she roared back, firing a beam of equal size as it collided with Natsu's attack. The resulting explosion blew everyone away, as the guild members desperately tried to grab onto anything they could get their hands on. Once the explosion died down and the dust cleared, they saw that neither Natsu nor Wendy had managed to damage one another.

"Their attacks cancelled each other out it seems." Jura quickly pointed out. Everyone nodded in agreement.

They looked at Wendy, who was panting a bit, but otherwise was okay. Natsu on the other hand was a different story. He was breathing heavily, his body was bruised and it seemed like he would fall over any second. His flames quickly died out and the lightning that was surging around his body disappeared, as he fell face forward onto the ground. Everyone rushed towards Natsu, though Wendy was the first one to get to him. She quickly turned him over and began healing him, while all the other members gathered around the two.

"Damn Wendy, you really kicked Natsu's ass good." Gray cheered, earning him a glare from Wendy in return. "Er, I mean good job Natsu, that was a hell of a fight!"

Everyone stared at Gray. "**Idiot.**"

Wendy turned her attention back to Natsu. He was still breathing thankfully and he seemed to be coming back to consciousness. _'I know I might have gone a little overboard on you Natsu, but you've always gone out one hundred percent against every opponent you've faced, so it wouldn't have been right if I didn't do the same for you.'_

"We..ndy.." Natsu tried to speak. "Man..my head's still spinning."

"Try not to talk Natsu-san." Wendy stated. "You're pretty beat up."

Natsu let out a low chuckle. "I take it I lost then, huh?"

Wendy nodded and frowned a bit. "Yes, you collapsed and lost consciousness, so I was the last one standing."

"But man were you awesome Wendy!" he yelled before coughing in pain, his ribs still hurting from Wendy's kick. Wendy perked up a little and smiled.

"Thank you Natsu-san." Wendy paused for a moment. "So what was that technique you used at the very end, with the lightning? I've never seen anything like that before."

Natsu grinned. "It was pretty cool, wasn't it? When we were back on Tenrou Island, Laxus gave me all his power when we were fighting Master Hades. After I ate all his lightning, it fused with my fire to create that new form you saw."

Wendy looked up at Laxus, who smiled and nodded in return before looking back down at Natsu. _'Even after all this time, he's still full of surprises.'_

"The only drawback to it is that I can't use it for long periods of time. It puts a lot of strain on my body."

"I see." Wendy replied. "Hopefully you won't over do it with that form in the future."

Natsu looked at her, thinking for a few moment. "I've got it!" he said suddenly, startling everyone around them.

"What is it Natsu-san?" she asked quizzically.

Natsu let out a huge grin. "You should join our team Wendy!" he replied.

Wendy was suddenly taken back by his statement. She thought for a moment and then smiled. "I'd love to Natsu-san!" she responded. Natsu put up his right hand, welcoming her to Team Natsu. Wendy grabbed his hand and grinned confidently. Everyone around them started cheering.

"Looks like the strongest team in Fairy Tail just got stronger." Erza smiled. "Welcome to the team Wendy."

"I'll do my best!" Wendy said with vigor, raising her fist in the air.

"We'll all do our best too, we're gonna need to if we want Fairy Tail back on top again." Levy added. "Let's work hard everyone!"

"**FOR FAIRY TAIL!**" everyone cheered.

_'Our best, huh? I guess I'll have to do my best too Natsu..so I can muster up the courage to show you know how I really feel.'_ Erza thought as a small smile graced her lips.

Jura chuckled. "It's good to see Fairy Tail back at full strength again."

"Indeed. We're all going to have to do our best too if you don't want to fall behind. Men." Ichiya added.

Suddenly, everyone realized a few people were missing. "Where's Gajeel?" Levy asked.

"Aye, he said something about going on a six month-long journey to get stronger as soon as possible or something." Happy shrugged.

"Humph. What a wimp." Carla quipped, knowing exactly why he ran off.

"What about Master-er, I mean Makarov?" Erza pointed out. "Has anyone seen him?"

They all looked around, trying to find signs of the previous Master of Fairy Tail. After a few minutes of searching, they all found him in front of the guild looking like he had just seen a ghost.

_'Wendy..a part of Natsu's team? The three most destructive mages in all of Fairy Tail, along with **Wendy**? This is it, it's all over! The End of Days! The Apocalypse has come!'_

"..."

"Master, are you crying?"

* * *

**Present**

"I'd hate to get on Wendy's bad side, nya." Lucy shuddered.

"Aye, Erza is no laughing matter either." Happy quipped, then quickly realized something. "You know, I'm a little worried for Natsu's health now.."

Carla smiled at Happy. She always liked how much he cared for his pink haired friend. "I wouldn't worry." she assured her blue companion. "Natsu's proven himself to be very tough time and time again. He'll be fine."

Happy suddenly perked up. "Aye! He's the great Salamander after all!"

Lucy couldn't help but giggle. "Still, I am a little worried how this will all end, nya."

"Erza is pretty persistent when she wants something." Happy remarked.

"Wendy is no different either, she won't give up until she reaches her goal." Carla added. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"Yea. Still, Wendy and Erza fighting over Natsu? I never knew he had it in him, nya."

Happy suddenly thought of something. "Lucy, I think we should pretend like we don't know that Erza likes Natsu."

"Why's that?" Lucy replied. She thought for a moment before coming to the same conclusion as Happy. "I think you have a point, nya.."

Carla looked at the two with a puzzled expression. "Why should we do that?"

"Because.." the blue Exceed began. "Erza isn't the best when it comes to hiding her emotions. Its pretty obvious for the people who know her the best. When people catch on that she's hiding something, she makes sure they never tell a soul." Happy shuddered, remembering when she punted him into the forest earlier in the morning.

_'So that's what she was hiding earlier! She was day dreaming about Natsu!'_ Carla quickly realized.

Gray suddenly felt something click in his head. "Wait, what?! Erza and Wendy are fighting over Natsu?! THEY LIKE HIM?!" Gray yelled as he just now realized that his rival was once again two steps ahead of him, or in this case, two women.

"Idiot." Carla quipped at the ice mage's stupidity.

"As sharp as a rock, nya." Lucy added.

"Aye, he's as bright as a wet match!"

Gray's eye twitched. "Hey, give me a break here.."

"Speaking of which, why haven't you advanced things with Juvia? I mean, she's literally all over you most of the time, nya."

"You know you don't have to keep saying that at the end of each sentence..Erza's not here." Gray said in annoyance, attempting to avoid the question. Before he could say anything else, he felt a chill go up his spine as Erza's gaze pierced through him. "..Actually, forget what I just said."

Happy sighed and shook his head. "I guess the relationship hasn't advanced at all." the blue Exceed pointed out, further annoying the ice mage.

"And here I thought Natsu was the stupid one." Carla added.

Gray rested his chin on his hand and decided to keep quiet for the rest of the train ride. Lucy giggled as Happy and Carla exchanged smiles. They decided to enjoy the silence until they reached their destination.

"..."

"Gray, your clothes, nya."

"Oh crap!"

* * *

**I felt like I focused a bit too much on Wendy this chapter, but I think it was necessary since she is OC in this story and I want to explain her reason's to why she's changed so much from her previously shy personality. Natsu and Erza are also slightly OC, though I tried my best to stay true to the rest of their character. This chapter was actually supposed to be a little longer, but I decided to cut out the last part and use it in the next chapter. Welp, that's it for this chapter, and as always, let me know your thoughts on the story so far. I appreciate critiscm. Till next time. :3**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Convergence

**A/N: Hey everyone, Gera here with the third Chapter of 'Love and Chaos.' Again, thank you to all the people who have left me reviews, they're a big help. I really enjoyed typing this chapter up, so I hope you guys will like it too. Enjoy. :D**

**Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

**Crocus**

"That was the worst train ride I've ever been on.." Natsu groaned. The entire ride was almost too much for the Dragon Slayer. Without a lap to lay his head on, he fought back with all his might to keep himself from throwing up on the two girls. The images of an enraged Titania and Sky Maiden beating him to a bloody pulp were too gruesome for him to even imagine. He looked down at the two women who were still glaring at each other. It didn't look like they were going to let go of his arms any time soon.

"Did you enjoy the ride, Ladies Man?" Carla teased.

"I hate all of you.." he replied wearily.

"People are kinda staring at us, nya." Lucy quipped.

"Deal with it. I had to deal with _**this**_ for three hours." Natsu muttered.

Happy scratched his head. "I think they're more interested in your outfit Lucy, rather than Natsu." the blue Exceed pointed out.

Lucy merely sighed. "Don't remind me, nya.." she shuddered as a group of men started giving her perverted grins.

The group continued their walk, talking about various things to pass the time. By the look of things, it was now noon. After about a half an hour of walking, they stopped outside a huge museum.

"Is this the client's place?" Natsu asked.

Lucy nodded. "Yep, he owns this museum. We're supposed to meet him inside, nya."

"Well, let's go meet the guy already and get this over with." Gray grumbled.

Natsu looked down at Wendy and Erza. "We're here you two, so you can let go now. We need to be presentable for our client."

The two women reluctantly let go, as Natsu's blood rushed to his near-lifeless arms. _'Thank you God! Oh, how I missed you my lovely arms!' _He suddenly rushed over to the nearest bush and threw up, having no more reason to hold anything in anymore.

"Wow, Natsu really kept himself from throwing up for that long, huh?" Happy commented. "It's a new record!"

"That's quite impressive actually." Carla added.

"Yea, yea, new record and what not. Let's just go meet our client already, nya."

"Alright, let's move out!" Natsu cheered as he ran inside.

"Well, that was fast." Gray said, as he followed in after Natsu.

The others looked at each other and shrugged before going inside. Once inside, they all stood amazed at what they saw: giant fossils, huge paintings and stone cravings, scriptures and so on. Surprisingly, there was no one else inside. Natsu had a hard time controlling his inner child as he looked at a skeleton of what appeared to be a three-headed beast. "This place is freaking awesome!" he yelled as he jumped around looking at different displays.

"Guess this is his first time in a museum, nya." Lucy shrugged. She turned around and saw that the others were just as wide-eyed and giddy as Natsu. _'Guess it's their first time for them too.'_

Happy quickly gasped. "Carla, look!" the blue Exceed pointed at a replica of a humongous fish that took up almost the entire right side of the museum. Happy's eyes were as wide as saucers, drool dripping from his mouth.

"I'd hate to be in the water when this thing's swimming around." the white Exceed gulped.

At the other side of the museum, Erza was staring at a set of armor from the far East, complete with a katana that had a dragon engraved on the blade. "A-amazing! W-where did he find such an exquisite set of armor?!" she let our a girlish squeal, her eyes filled with stars.

"Preeeeeeetty." Wendy subconsciously rolled her tongue. She was staring at an illustration that depicted a serpent like dragon with different colored feathers. She began to imagine what kind of element the dragon used. "Maybe its the Rainbow Dragon!" Wendy's eyes lit up at the thought of the dragon shooting a rainbow from it's mouth.

"Now this guy's got the right idea." Gray smirked. He was looking at a replica of a caveman wearing nothing but a loin cloth, unaware that he was standing there with nothing on but his underwear.

"Maybe he belongs here, nya." Lucy commented as she looked at Gray and then the caveman.

"I see you're all enjoying yourselves." a voice spoke out with a chuckle. Natsu and the others all turned to see a man wearing a white business-like attire. He looked like he was in his mid thirties, with black wavy hair and a mustache, standing at an average height. "You must be the mages from Fairy Tail I've been expecting. Glad you made it here safely." he said with a smile, as everyone gathered to meet him.

"Aye!" Happy quipped.

The man gave another chuckle. "You must be the Great Nekomander I've heard about. I must say, despite what your name implied, I did not think you would actually be a cat, much less a flying talking one."

"How rude." Carla replied, taking offense to the talking cat part.

"Ah, forgive me, I didn't mean anything ill from it, I was just a little surprised is all." he quickly cleared his throat. "Before I go any further, I should introduce myself. My name is Kornel Veznov. I am the owner of this museum, as well as the owner of MagiTech Industries."

Lucy's eyes suddenly lit up. "You mean the company that's designing new and revolutionary magic for the future, nya?"

Kornel chuckled. "Yes. Currently we're using magic to help with many practical uses, such as construction of homes and railroads, maintenance and security purposes, as well as coming up with new inventions. In fact, we're in the process of designing a new line of magic vehicles that run on an independent source of magic that's rechargeable, eliminating the need for an SE-plug."

Everyone listened with awe, with the exception of Natsu and Wendy, who both had a look of indifference.

"Well, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Veznov, I am Erza Scarlet." Erza began. "This is Carla, Happy, Gray Fullbuster, Lucy Heartfilia, N-"

Kornel quickly cut her off before she could introduce Natsu and Wendy. "Ah, you two must be the Dragon Slayers from Fairy Tail I've heard rumors about! Salamander Natsu and the Sky Maiden Wendy. It's an honor to meet the both of you." he bowed respectfully.

The two Dragon Slayers looked at each other and blinked. After a moment, they decided to bow in return. "Likewise." Wendy replied.

"Nice to meet you too!" Natsu grinned.

Kornel looked up and then frowned. "It seems that the Iron Dragon Slayer, Black Steel Gajeel, is not among you."

"He had to tend to some other business, so he couldn't accompany us today." Erza replied.

"Ah, that's unfortunate, but no matter. Having the great Titania, Salamander, Sky Maiden, Nekomander and Cosplay Queen for this job makes me feel very much at ease."

"I'm not even gonna bother saying anything, nya.." Lucy muttered depressingly.

Kornel coughed into his hand. " Well, now that the formalities are out of the way, let me explain to you the nature of this job." he took a deep breath before continuing. "About two days ago, a group of my workers in Marza were digging along side of a mountain range in order to expand our railroads to the cities beyond it. As they were digging, they stumbled upon a chamber containing an object."

"Do you know what this object is?" Wendy asked curiously.

"Well, according to a report that came in this morning, its seems to be a lacrima-like statue resembling a dragon."

Natsu stared wide-eyed as the others listened patiently. "A dragon?"

"Yes. It's also massive, too big for the men I have stationed there to move. I would have already sent in a larger force by now to move it, but it seems there's another problem." Erza looked quizzically at the man. "It seems that the object is protected by an enchantment that prevents anyone from going near it."

"Like Runes, nya?" Lucy asked.

"It's very similar to Rune Magic, but its seems much older and more powerful. I sent a few of my best scholars to decipher the enchantment, but they only managed to decode a portion of it. It seems that only Dragon Slayers may near the object."

Erza crossed her arms. "I see. That's why you were looking for Dragon Slayers specifically."

Kornel nodded. "Yes. I'm hoping that with your assistance, we'll be able to get it moved back here for further study."

"Something that valuable is gonna attract a lot of attention. It's not gonna be easy moving that thing without someone catching a glimpse of it." Gray remarked.

"Very true. Which is why a number of my workers will be using Hidden Magic."

"Hidden Magic, nya?" Lucy asked.

"I see. By using that, you will be able to temporarily make the object invisible." Erza concluded. "Hidden Magic allows the user to temporarily hide their form, but it can also be used to hide the form of inanimate objects as well."

Kornel nodded. "However, an object of great size such at that will require a number of different people to use Hidden simultaneously to keep it invisible, and only for a certain period of time. Which is why I require an escort to ensure that nothing happens to them during the trip back. If one of the casters is taken out, then the spell will be lifted and the object exposed."

"Seeing that a lot of dark guilds have been on the move lately, they'll most likely catch wind of this and attempt to steal it." the scarlet mage pointed out.

"I see you are perceptive as the rumors say Erza Scarlet." Kornel smiled. "Which is why I've decided to raise the reward to five million jewel."

Erza, Lucy and Gray were dumbfounded. Natsu and Wendy looked at each other for a moment, exchanging looks.

"Whoo! I won't have to worry about my rent for a while, nya!" the celestial mage cheered.

"But why raise the reward?" Gray asked curiously.

Kornel looked down for a bit and sighed. "I've heard rumors from some of my associates in other companies. They said that a small group of dark mages have been going around various museums and dig sites in Fiore stealing artifacts of certain interest to them. It may be nothing, but you can never be too careful."

"It just means we will have to double our efforts and stay vigilant." Erza added. "Don't worry Mr. Veznov, we'll make sure to get this object back to you safely."

"Ah, thank you, I feel much more at ease hearing that from you." Kornel replied with a smile. "Now, about your arrangements.."

"**Arrangements?**" they all asked.

Kornel chuckled. "Yes. I have set up travelling arrangements to have you all taken to Marza tomorrow morning. Here." he handed Erza a small piece of paper. "I've also reserved a room for you all at this hotel in the meantime. Don't worry, it's already been paid for. It's a few blocks down the street from here, just show them this paper and they will have you settled in. For now, you can relax or go about the city as you please. The carriage will pick you up in front of the hotel tomorrow morning at 7 am sharp."

"T-this is v-very kind of you, b-but we can't accept something like this." Erza stammered. "According to this paper, the h-hotel you have reserved for us is f-five star!"

"Seriously?!" Gray's eyes widened.

The man couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Think of it as a bonus for the job you'll be doing." Kornel replied with a smile.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go, nya!" Lucy squealed as she dragged along a motionless Titania.

"B-b-but!"

"Come on Erza, you heard the man. It's a bonus. Let's just enjoy ourselves for now before we get ready for tomorrow." Gray smirked. "You need to relax a bit anyways."

Erza sighed in defeat, realizing there was no point in resisting. "Fine. Let's go." The three of them walked out, as Natsu and Wendy followed closely, along with the two Exceeds. The man continued to smile as he watched them disappear into the busy streets. His face suddenly became serious, with no hint of emotion.

"What do you want, Nero?" he said in a neutral tone.

A small black spider crawled along the ground before beginning to expand violently as it's form became twisted, growing larger. After a few moments, a hooded figure was standing where the spider once was. He was wearing a mask that resembled a serpent's face.

"Tsk. I was hoping you wouldn't notice me." he said regrettably.

"I could sense before you were even in the city." Kornel replied firmly.

"Fine, fine, 'All Knowing One.' Nero said sarcastically. "You seemed to tell them a little too much with that last comment."

Kornel sighed. "Are you doubting me, Nero?"

"Not at all. I was just making sure things were going according to **_your_** plan." the young man replied smugly. "Those fools will believe any lie that you feed them."

"I simply told them what they wanted to hear, nothing more. Once you do that, you can twist them around your finger as you like. Such greedy creatures these people turned out to be."

"You're one to talk." the young man sneered.

Kornel sighed again. "Is that all you came here to discuss? I have a few important matters I need to attend to."

"Tsk. As you wish **_corporate_ _man_**. Just make sure you do your part, and we'll do our's." Nero sneered. "Oh, one more thing. It seems that the Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel Redfox, is making his way to the city as well." His body became enshrouded by darkness, and then disappeared without a trace, leaving the other man to his thoughts. Kornel walked over to a stone slab painting. It depicted a man and a dragon fighting alongside one another. The rest of the painting was lost, the slab having been broken in two at some point in the past. He stared at the painting, almost as if reminiscing about it.

_'Chaos..'_

* * *

**Streets of Crocus**

"Is this really the hotel he was telling us about?" a wide-eyed Carla asked. "This place looks more like a palace."

They all stared up at the massive, castle like building. It took up nearly fifteen city blocks.

"Looks like a place fit for a king or queen, nya!" Lucy said before her expression got serious. "Alright, do I honestly need to keep saying 'Nya' all the time? It's starting to drive me crazy!"

Gray scratched his head. "Lucy has a point there, it's starting to get on my nerves too."

"Aye, I'm a cat and even I find it hard to listen to." Happy added.

Lucy was getting irritated. "Now look here you damn cat.."

"It's actually been really annoying since you started saying it." Erza remarked. "I guess you've suffered enough. Keep the outfit on though."

Carla noticed that it was a little quieter than usual. "Natsu, you've been rather silent since we left that museum." the white Exceed pointed out.

"Is something wrong Natsu?" Erza asked worryingly. She also noticed that he wasn't his usual cheerful self.

Natsu looked at Wendy for a moment. They both nodded to each other before looking back at the others. "It was that guy.."

"You mean our client?" Gray asked. The male Dragon Slayer nodded his head again.

"His scent..it smelled..**_different_**." Wendy finished for Natsu.

Lucy felt a little paranoid. "Are you saying..he isn't human?"

Natsu shook his head. "He's definitely human. It's just his scent, there's something _**off** _about it. Been bugging the hell out of me for some reason."

"Same here." Wendy added. "I've never smelled anything like it before."

The others looked at each other, trying to make sense of what they just heard. This job they were taking seemed to be getting full of more and more surprises by the minute.

_'Is Kornel hiding something?'_ Erza thought.

"He might be a foreigner." Lucy began to explain. "There are many people out there in the world, so a lot of them probably have different scents. It's like a sign of individuality, to distinguish themselves from one another."

Natsu thought for a moment. "Maybe you're right, Lucy."

"I guess we were just worrying over nothing." Wendy added.

Everyone stood there in silence for a moment, before a certain ice mage decided to break the ice. "If we keep thinking about this too much, all we're going to do is give ourselves headaches, and I want to be able to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow's job." Gray smirked.

"Gray's right." Lucy added. "If we keep worrying about all this, we won't be able to focus on our work tomorrow."

Natsu was getting riled up. "We're Fairy Tail mages! We can take on anything!"

"Even if we run into trouble, we won't back down. We'll definitely get this job done right." Wendy grinned confidently.

"Aye! We're the guild that doesn't know when to quit!" Happy cheered.

Carla smiled. "Indeed, we will finish this."

Erza couldn't help but smile. _'These guys..'_

"Now let's go check out this hotel!" Natsu roared as he ran inside, the others quickly following behind. Once inside, they all looked around. There was a large fountain in front of the receptionist's desk; The floor was made of polished granite, and the walls were adorned with paintings and portraits. There were huge granite pillars that had creamy white textures, adorned with golden designs that looked like actual gold. Indeed, it was a place fit for a ruler.

"Hello." a young woman with dark brown hair and green eyes spoke. "Can I help you with something?"

The group walked over until they reached the desk. "Yes, we have a room reserved for us here." Erza handed the young woman the paper. She looked over it and smiled.

"Ah. Friends of Mr. Veznov?" the receptionist asked.

"No, we just have business with him is all." Erza replied.

The young woman smiled again. "I see. Well, I do hope you will enjoy your stay here as much as Mr. Veznov does."

"Does he come here often?" Gray asked.

The young woman looked at them a little in surprise. "Oh? He didn't tell you?"

"Tell us what?" they all waited curiously.

"He owns this hotel." she said cheerfully.

They all fell to the floor. '_**Just how loaded is this**** guy?**_' they thought. The receptionist couldn't help but giggle. She put her hand on a small lacrima at her desk, as it made a loud ringing noise. While the group waited, they began hearing loud footsteps coming towards them. They turned around to see a massive man, who looked like he was thirty feet tall, approaching them. They all watched wide-eyed at the man's approach, his feet thundering with each step he took. He was wearing what appeared to be size thirty-eight shoes, and wore a tuxedo suit that looked like it would tear in two if he tried to flex his muscles. He finally came to a stop, his last step making everyone jump off the floor. _**'He's huge!' **_Despite his intimidating size, his face was gentle.

"Hello. How may I be of assistance today?" he asked in a soft voice, suprising everyone again.

The young woman giggled again. "This is Ganjo, he will be carrying your things and showing you to your room."

Ganjo bowed. "I hope that you have been having a wonderful day thus far." he quickly grabbed all their things with one hand and turned around. "Please, follow me." Ganjo began walking towards the stairs. Natsu and the others followed behind meekly, like small ducklings following their mother. They all remained silent for a few minutes. After reaching the second floor, Ganjo decided to speak. "I apologize if my size intimidates you. I use Titan Magic. I had an accident when I was younger and I am unable to cancel out the spell. That is why my body looks like this."

"Ah, I see. Forgive us, we did not mean to offend you in anyway." Erza quickly apologized.

Ganjo smiled. "It's quite alright, I've learned to accept my body and live a normal life."

"Our Master also uses Titan Magic." Wendy commented. "Maybe he can help you."

"Oh? Do you mean Master Makarov?" Ganjo turned to face them. "Then you must be members of his guild, Fairy Tail."

"That's right." Natsu grinned. "He's an awesome Master!"

"Indeed he is." Ganjo replied. "He helped me many years ago when he learned of my accident. He did his best to try to nullify my magic to return me to my normal body, but alas he couldn't. I did, however, learn many things from him, and he gave me the courage to move on and live my life." He turned again to face the group. "Please, give my regards to your Master when you return."

"You got it big guy." Gray gave him a thumbs up.

Erza smiled. "I'm sure he'll be happy to hear from you."

"Thank you." Ganjo replied with a smile. They continued walking for a few moments before he stopped suddenly. "We're here." They stood in front of a large door that was much taller than Ganjo (for obvious reasons). He opened the door and showed them in. Inside, there was a big living room that had a couch big enough for ten people. Further in the back, they could see six beds, three lined up on one side and the other three lined up on the opposite wall. The was also a glass door that led to a patio outside and a big round table with several chairs in the middle. "This is your room." Ganjo set down their belongings on the couch. "As you can see, there is a living room up front, and further back are several beds. There is also a patio outside, as well as a table." he said, before pointing over to a small door. "Behind this door is the bathroom, complete with a tub and shower, as well as soap and towels. There is also a large jacuzzi outside, should you feel inclined to use it." Ganjo walked over to a small table in the livingroom that had a small lacrima in the middle. "If you are hungry, tap this lacrima for room service." As he finished, he walked over to the door. "Please, enjoy yourselves everyone."

"Alright, thanks Ganjo!" Natsu said with a grin.

"Thank you Ganjo." Erza bowed respectfully.

Ganjo smiled and bowed in return. "You are welcome. If you need anything else, do not hesitate to ask." he replied as he turned and walked outside the room, closing the door behind him.

"Alright, I'm gonna go check out that jacuzzi!" Lucy squealed as she started taking out clothes from her bag.

Gray yawned. "I think I'm gonna go take a nap." the ice mage said as he jumped over on one end of the couch.

_'This is perfect!_' Erza thought. _'Now's my chance.'_

Natsu scratched his head for a moment. "Hm, I think I-Whoa!" Erza grabbed the pink haired mage and began dragging him away.

"Come on, I saw a few interesting stores on our way here that I think we should check out." the scarlet mage said, hiding her true motive.

Wendy quickly caught on to what Erza was trying to do. "Erza, wait!" she cried out.

As Erza continued to drag away the helpless Dragon Slayer, she looked back at Wendy and gave her a sly grin before sticking her tongue out at the Sky Maiden.

_'Too slow Wendy.'_

_'That's not fair Erza, you're cheating!' _Wendy glared back. Before she could do anything else, the two were gone.

"Looks like she beat you to it." Carla said smugly.

"Damn that woman!" Wendy puffed her cheeks.

Happy suddenly walked in front of them, holding up a sign that read '**Titania 1, Sky Maiden 0**' before walking away.

Carla crossed her arms. "Don't worry, she caught you off guard this time, but next time you'll be ready.

The Sky Maiden clenched her fist. "I'll pay you back for this Erza!" she roared. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head before she gave Carla an evil grin.

_'Oh, I can't wait to see the look on her face..'_

* * *

**Crocus Market District**

"Where are we going?" Natsu grumbled.

"There are a couple of stores I'd like to look at." Erza answered. "Ah, let's check this place out."

The two of them stopped infront of a building with a sign that read '**General Hiro's Armory**.' Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"Erza, do we have to-" Natsu cut himself off as he looked at the scarlet mage. Her eyes were filled with stars and she had the look of a little girl who was being taken to her favorite candy shop. _'Erza just looks so damn happy..'_ Natsu sighed inwardly. "Alright Erza, let's go inside."

Erza let out a girlish squeal and ran inside, unaware that she had subconsciously grabbed Natsu's arm and was now dragging him along the ground, like a little child does with their stuffed teddy bear. Inside, there were various weapons lined up in rows against the wall, as well as mannequins wearing various armor sets. Erza was having a hard time controlling herself as she jumped from item to item, admiring each weapon and the armor.

Natsu scratched his head. "Looks like we might be here for a while.." The Dragon Slayer walked over to a massive two-handed sword who's hilt resembled a dragon opening it's mouth, as if regurgitating the blade. He glanced over to the armor that was paired with it. The helmet was a dragon's head with frills on the side. It reminded him of his father.

_'Igneel..where are you?'_ Natsu thought solemly. _'I've looked everywhere for you, and yet you're still hiding..what are you doing now, father?'_

"Hey, you're Salamader, right?" a voice spoke. "Natsu Dragneel from Fairy tail?"

Natsu turned to see a small group of young women had gathered around him. "Yes, I'm Natsu." the mage replied. "Why do you ask?"

The group all let out squeals.

"Wow, it's really him!"

"He's way cuter in person!"

"Cute? He's a hunk!"

"He's so hot and steamy.."

Natsu sweat dropped at the last comment. _'Hot and steamy? What the hell do I look like, a steamed vegetable?' _he thought angrily. "Who are you people?"

A young woman with fiery orange hair perked up. She looked like the leader of the group. "Oh, how rude of us. We're the Salamander Fan Club! My name is Tiana, the club president."

Natsu looked at them curiously. "A fan club?" he asked.

"That's right, we've watched you compete at the Grand Magical Games, and since then we've dedicated ourselves to the great Salamander." another girl with purple hair replied.

"You were so awesome when you fought Sting and Rogue all by yourself!" a girl with white hair added.

Tiana suddenly started fidgeting with her skirt as she looked down, her face flushed. "Um..can I..erm..can I..uh.." she was having a hard time trying to find her words.

"What was that?" Natsu asked, not really paying attention to the other girls wooing over him.

"Can I shake your hand!" Tiana blurted out loud enough for everyone in the store to hear.

Natsu blinked for a few moments. "Sure, I don't see why not." he replied.

The young woman perked up. "Do you really mean it?" she asked excitedly.

"Of course I do." Natsu replied with his trademark grin, making the other girls squeal.

Tiana shakily extended her hand out. Natsu was about to do the same and shake it, but then he noticed the look on her face, as well as on the rest of the girls. They looked horrified. He stared at them puzzled for a moment, before he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. He turned, already knowing who it was.

"Oh hey Erza, I was ju-" The pink haired mage froze. Erza's eyes were glowing red, and the menacing aura around her sent a shiver up the Dragon Slayer's spine. "Uh, E-Erza?" Natsu squeaked. Without saying a word, Erza stormed out the store, dragging him away yet again, leaving the Salamander Fan Club stunned for a few minutes.

"What just happened?" one of the girls finally spoke.

"I don't know."

"Was that Erza Scarlet?"

"She was pretty scary."

Tiana simply stared at her hand. "I think next time I'll just ask for an autograph." she sighed depressingly.

"What the hell was that for Erza?" Natsu asked angrily.

Erza stopped for a moment and let go of the pink haired mage. She turned around, glaring at him. "Why were you talking to those girls?"

Natsu was slightly taken back by her question. Her voice was angry, but he could sense something else was amiss. _'Did I do something wrong?'_

"Answer me!" she yelled angrily.

"They said they were fans." Natsu answered. "One of them asked me to shake her hand. That was it."

His answer only seemed to anger her further. "Oh, was she really beautiful Natsu? Is that why you were going to shake her hand? Did she look sexy?"

Natsu was now completely lost. _'Beautiful? Sexy? What the hell is Erza blabbing about?'_

"If you like her so much then maybe you should go back there and be with her!" Erza blurted out. She quickly turned her back towards the Dragon Slayer, clenching her fists.

Natsu sighed and scratched his head. He had no idea how to deal with women at all. _'I don't really get it, but I do know that I hurt her.' _he thought. "Erza.." he began.

"Go away." she muttered in response. The Dragon slayer rolled his eyes and walked towards her. He grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him.

Erza tried to struggle. "Let go of me Natsu! I-"

"You're beautiful Erza." the Dragon Slayer stated flatly.

Erza found it hard to speak at first. "W-what are you.."

"Sure, you can be scary as hell sometimes, but you're still beautiful. I don't know anyone else in the world who has beautiful scarlet hair like you do." Natsu went on. "You're strong and passionate, I look up to you because of that. You also care for our friends like I do. In a way, we're kinda the same."

Erza smiled. "I'm not a hot head like you are though, or rash, or stupid, or forgetful, or-"

"Yea, yea, you're calm and collected and I'm not. I get it." Natsu cut her off, making her giggle. "So are you still made at me?"

"Idiot. Of course I'm not." the scarlet mage replied.

Natsu turned around and grinned at her. "Good."

_'I could never stay mad at you Natsu..' _she thought. Then it hit her. _'I'm holding hands with Natsu!' _Erza realized. She started to blush profusely. "Where are you taking me N-Natsu?"

Natsu didn't respond. They kept walking for what Erza felt was an eternity. After they crossed a busy street, Natsu stopped. "We're here."

Erza looked up at the sign. "A café?" she asked.

"I saw this place last time, when we came here to compete in the Grand Magical Games. They serve a lot of pastries here. It'll be my treat."

"But what about you?" Erza asked, knowing that sweets wasn't exactly his cup of tea.

"I'll be fine. Every once in a while doesn't hurt, right?" he grinned.

Erza couldn't help but smile. "Alright, but I'm getting whatever I want, no matter how expensive it is." she replied.

"Fine, as long as you don't buy the entire store." Natsu grimaced.

He went over and opened the door for Erza, earning him another giggle in return. Once inside, they were seated by a waitress and given menus before she left to go seat another table. The two looked over the menus before a different waitress came over to take their orders.

"I'll have three slices of strawberry cake." Erza said.

"I'll have the stuffed croissant." Natsu added.

The waitress nodded. "It'll just be a moment."

While the two started talking about various things, a cloaked figure began to watch the couple from atop a building. The person removed their hood, revealing a woman with dark brown hair and green eyes. Her skin was rather pale, though it had a slight allure to it.

"Enjoying the view, Valeria?" a distorted voice spoke. A familiar shadowy figure rose up from the ground next her. "It seems you have your eye on a certain Salamander."

"I want him." she said seductively, licking her lips. "He will make a perfect slave."

The shadow gave a fanged grin. "He will be yours soon, once we take what we need from him." he replied. "Though it seems a certain _**Queen**_ is standing between you and Dragneel."

Valeria smiled slyly. "I'll make sure I take care of her myself. I will certainly savor the look on her face when I steal her beloved away." she mused.

The figure gave a distorted laugh. "I will certainly look forward to seeing Titania groveling at your feet."

The woman purred. "It seems someone else has decided to join in on the fun as well." she quickly pointed out, sensing someone enter the city.

"Black Steel." the figure said flatly. "Nero has already informed me of his approach." he grinned menacingly.

"Looks like all the pieces are now coming together." she commented. "Salamander, the Sky Maiden, Black Steel..the three most powerful Dragon Slayers in all of Fiore. Reviving _**him** _will only be a matter of time."

"Yes. Their powers will be more than enough. Just a little longer.."

Valeria smiled evilly before she and the shadow figure disappeared.

"Did you just feel that?" Natsu quickly looked out the window.

Erza was in the middle of eating her cake. "Feel what Natsu?" she asked quizzically.

"It felt like someone was watching us." he replied.

"Are you sure?" she asked, slightly worried. If Natsu felt something out of the ordinary, it usually meant trouble.

Natsu took a deep breath. "Yes, but whoever it was is gone now." he responded, looking down at his plate.

Erza studied the Dragon Slayer for a moment. _'He's been on edge ever since we left from the museum.' _the scarlet mage thought_. S_he decided to change the topic.

"Natsu, about earlier.."

Natsu looked up at her curiously.

"About what I said..I'm sorry I went off on you like that. I truly regret it." she said.

Natsu just grinned at her. "It's alright Erza." he reassured her.

Erza bit her lip. _'It's now or never..'_ she thought as she took a deep breath. "I just want you to know that the reason I said those things.." she paused for a moment. Her heart was now beating very quickly. _'This is harder than I thought it would be.'_

"Hm?" Natsu waited anxiously.

"It's because.." Erza swallowed the lump in her throat. "I..I li-'

"SALAMANDER!"

The two mages quickly turned to see a fuming Gajeel barge into the café, followed by a reluctant Panther Lily.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" Gajeel slammed his hands on the table they were sitting at. "You know how hard it is to find your scent in a place like this?"

"You know, you could have just asked the people on the streets if they've seen a pink haired man.." Lily sweat dropped.

"Like hell I would have!" Gajeel snarled. He then grabbed Natsu by his collar. "And _**you**_, what kind of self-respecting Dragon Slayer hangs around in a café eating pastries?!"

"What the hell did you just say you scrap iron freak!" Natsu quickly retorted. _'That's it, I'm really gonna let him have it this time!' _he thought angrily.

"You heard me Salamander, if you wanna do something about it, th-" before he could finish, Gajeel was sent flying through the window by a very, **_very_** pissed Titania. He quickly got back to his feet. "Erza! What the hell was th-" he was cut off by a sword that flew past his face. Erza was now wearing her Heaven's Wheel Armor, her numerous swords surrounding the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"_**Gajeel..**_" she said in a dark tone. The aura around her was like nothing the Iron Dragon Slayer had ever felt before. First he dealt with Mira's wrath, and now this.

_'This is messed up.'_

As Erza proceeded to hurt Gajeel in the worst ways imaginable, Natsu watched the scene from inside the café, wondering how things had even escalated to this point. He scratched his head, still thinking about what she was trying to say earlier. _'I wonder what she wanted to tell me..'_ he thought. Natsu turned to one of the waitresses, who handed him something.

"What's this?" he asked curiously before looking at the piece of paper.

"It's your bill sir." she replied.

"..."

"Will tha-Hey, where are you going? Get back here!"

* * *

**Fairy Tail**

"Hm.." Makarov was deep in thought. He had been sitting in same position for the past six hours. While everyone in the guild was too busy going about their own business to really notice, a few of them did catch on to his sudden distress, primarily Mirajane, Juvia and Cana.

"Is everything alright, Master?" Mirajane asked.

"Juvia can sense something is troubling you." the water mage added.

Cana took another big gulp from her barrel, before placing it aside. "You've sat there doing nothing for most of the day. We're starting to feel a little worried about you."

The sixth Master let out a heavy sigh before looking at the three mages. "It's that Job Natsu and his team took on. After I informed the client about their arrival to Crocus, I did a little research on the man. The apparent owner of MagiTech, Kornel Veznov."

The three mages looked at each other before looking back at Makarov. "Aparrent?" Cana asked curiously.

"There is a friend of mine who keeps many records of various business and estate owners, for safety purposes of course. When he pulled up the file for MagiTech industries, he quickly found that there were no records of this 'Kornel Veznov' ever joining the company."

"So this 'Kornel' man is an impostor? That means Natsu and the others are in danger!" Mirajane quickly realized.

Levy suddenly jumped in on the conversation. "Gajeel left earlier to catch up with Natsu, he's probably with them now!"

Makarov sighed. "I knew I should have done a thorough investigation on this man.."

"Gray-sama's life is at risk then!" Juvia added before bolting to the door.

"Juvia, wait! I'm coming with you!" Levy cried out, but before the water mage could stop, she ran into someone.

"Whoa their missy, watch where you're running." a voice spoke, sounding like a man in his forties.

"**Gildarts!**" everyone shouted.

The man gave out a huge grin. "Hey everyone, I'm back." he said flatly, oblivious to what was happening. "I hear Fairy Tail is number one in Fiore again."

"Yea, you got that right!" a random member shouted.

Gildarts walked over to the Makarov. "You must be pretty happy now, eh Master?" he said with another grin.

"Gildarts..I was beginning to wonder when you were going to show up again." Makarov replied. "You'll have to tell me about all that later, we have a situation at the moment."

"Oh?" Gildarts waited curiously. Makarov went on to explain about the job that Natsu and his team had gone on, what he discovered about the client and the possibility of Natus's group being in danger. "I see."

"I want you to go to Crocus and make sure they are safe. Bring them back as soon as you find them." the sixth Master ordered.

Gildarts raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up. "Don't worry, I'll make sure nothing happens to them."

"I'm coming with you." Levy added. "I'm worried about Gajeel."

"Juvia will also go!"

The two girls looked at Makarov. The Master nodded his head.

"Alright you two, let's get going." Gildarts said as he walked out the guild, Levy and Juvia following close behind.

_'Bring them back safely you three..and be careful, we still don't know what we're dealing with at the moment.'_

* * *

**Crocus**

"Natsu and Erza went out?" Gray yawned, having woken up from his nap. He looked up at the clock, seeing that it was fairly close to seven.

Lucy was drying her hair, having taken a bath earlier. "Yea, they didn't say when they'd be back though."

"What about Wendy and Carla?" Happy asked curiously. "I haven't seen them for a while either."

"I saw them go outside to the patio. Maybe they're checking out the jacuzzi right now." Lucy replied.

They quickly started hearing voices coming from outside their room in the hallway. The three quickly walked over and pressed their ears against the door.

"..."

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"Did you see the damage that you caused?"

"You were the one who threw him out the window and went berserk! Did you see the bill _**I**_ had to pay for?"

"This would have never happened if you two weren't hanging around in a café to begin with."

"What was that?"

"Are you _**trying**_ to make me angry again?"

"You three should lower your voices, you're going to scare everyone out of this hotel."

"**SHUT UP!**"

"..."

"That's definitely Natsu and Erza." Gray commented. "It also sounds like Gajeel and Lily are with them."

"But I thought Gajeel stayed at the guild?" Lucy wondered.

"I guess maybe he got bored and changed his mind." Happy chirped.

Before they could do anything else, the door flew open and slammed the three into the wall. "We're back! Happy, Lucy, Gray." Natsu yelled. "Wendy, Carla, are you guys here?"

"It looks like they aren't present." Erza pointed out as she walked inside.

"They probably all went out too." Natsu grumbled, still pissed about what happened earlier. He looked over at Gajeel and glared at him.

"Oh, get over it Salamander." the Iron Dragon Slayer responded. "It was just pastries."

Erza gave Gajeel a deathly glare, making him shudder.

"Anyways, it's getting dark, they'll probably be back pretty soon." Lily added.

"Where are you going Natsu?" Erza asked as she saw the fuming Salamander walking towards the glass door.

"Outside. I need some fresh air." Natsu replied as he opened the sliding door and walked out.

Erza sighed for the moment and thought. _'I guess he's still angry at my little outburst. I'll let him cool off for now and speak with him later.'_

There was a loud thud as Erza, Gajeel and Lily turned around to see Happy, Lucy and Gray piled on top of each other.

"What are you three doing?" Erza asked as she raised an eyebrow. Gajeel and Lily sweat dropped at her oblivious nature, looking up at the impressions of a cat, a girl and a guy that were left on the wall.

Oustide, Natsu sat in one of the chairs, leaning back in it. It was quite windy and cold that night.

_'I wonder why Erza always flies off the handle like that sometimes. I mean, yea, I get that she was mad at Iron Freak over there, but did she really have to cause all that damage?'_

Natsu let out a sigh and looked up at the darkening sky. He stared for a few minutes, recalling how he and Igneel would always stare up at the night sky together before going to sleep. _'I wonder why they all left us..Igneel, Metalicana and Grandine..I guess they must had a good reason for leaving all of us like that. I wonder though..how many more Dragon Slayers are out there who have also been left by their dragons?' _He thought solemnly.

"Brrr.."

Natsu quickly spun around, having been too absorbed in thought to sense anyone at the moment. He sniffed the air for a few seconds. "Wendy?"

"Hey Natsu-san.." Wendy replied, shivering as she stood there in a blue bikini. "I went in the jacuzzi for a while, and I was laying down on that chair over there to dry off but it looks like I feel asleep after a while." she added sheepishly.

"You better get inside quick, it's really cold out here." Natsu replied worryingly. He got up and was about to walk over to the door when Wendy suddenly hugged him from behind. "Wendy?"

The Sky Maiden pressed her body into his back. "So warm..Natsu-san.." she mumbled softly, using his back as a pillow for her head. "Please..let's stay outside for a bit..okay?"

Natsu blinked. "Uh, okay Wendy. You sure you don't want to go inside? It's a lot warmer in there."

"I'm sure..Natsu-san.." she replied, rubbing her body gently into his back as they both stood there. _'It's not exactly what I had planned on earlier, but Erza isn't around, so now's my only chance.' _Wendy thought. "Natsu-san.."

"Yes Wendy?" he asked curiously.

"..Are there any girls that you like?" she asked suddenly.

Natsu crossed his arms and thought for a moment. "Hm..well yea, there's you, Erza, Lucy, Levy, Ca-"

"I mean that you like more than a friend..like a girlfriend."

Natsu blinked for a few seconds. _'Hm..a girlfriend, huh? I don't know, I've never really thought of that before. Igneel didn't tell me much about love either, he only taught me his magic and things about food.'_

"Natsu-san..?"

Natsu was pulled back from his thoughts. "Well..I don't know, I've never thought of that before really." he replied, scratching his head.

_'Good..atleast I know that I have a chance with him.'_

"Why do you ask?"

Wendy squeezed him tightly as she gripped his coat. "Well..I..I ki-"

"There you are!" Erza interrupted as the sliding door closed behind her.

"Oh, hey Erza, me and Wendy were just talking about some stuff." he said.

Erza ignored his comment and focused her attention the Sky Maiden latched to his back. Wendy peeked around Natsu's back and stuck her tongue out at Titania, making her growl.

_'I knew you were up to something when I didn't see you around inside, Wendy! You tried to pull one over on me, huh? You are a lot more cunning than I had anticipated..'_

_'All's fair in love and war, Erza-san. You took Natsu-san away earlier, so I'm just returning the favor.'_

Natsu felt nervous again as he recognized the looks they were giving each other. _'Oh no, they're getting fired up again!'_ he thought frantically. He was thankful that his reflexes were fast enough for him to shoot his arms up before Erza lunged at him, tackling Natsu and Wendy to the ground. They rolled around on the ground trying to wrestle the other off of Natsu, both women's bodies constantly rubbing against both sides of the male Dragon Slayer. Natsu would've been the luckiest man in Earthland, but unfortunately their constant rolling around was making his motion sickness slowly kick in. "Uh..guys..I'm starting to get really dizzy now.."

"**Shut up and take it like a man!**" both women retorted.

_'Damn it Igneel, you never told me what to do in this kind of fight!' _Natsu cursed his father inwardly. He could only pray that the two women would tire out soon. Unfortunately, this was the Sky Maiden and Titania he was dealing with, but he could always hope for a miracle.

While the three continued rolling around, the others watched from the other side of the door. Lucy let out a sigh, while the three Exceeds started betting on who they thought would last the longest. Gray and Gajeel watched enviously.

_**'Lucky bastard.'**_

"Knowing those two, they'll be at it for a while" Lucy mumbled. "I just hope Natsu makes through the night in one piece."

"Aye!" Happy chirped. "He's the great Salamander after all!"

Carla sighed and shrugged her arms. "Looks like this is just one of the many 'battles' he will have to look forward to in the future."

"I'm still confused as to why they're fighting in the first place." Lily added.

"It's a long story, kinda.."

As the two Exceeds began to explain to Lily what had happened, Gray turned to Gajeel. "You think something like this will ever happen to us?" he asked the Iron Dragon Slayer.

Gajeel looked at the ice mage. "Never in a million years."

They both sighed depressingly as they slumped over to different beds.

"What's up with those two?" Lucy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Males." Carla said flatly.

An hour later, a very tired Titania and Sky Maiden headed back inside, neither woman having been able to pry the other off. They both gave up, leaving Natsu outside, who just laid on the ground as he stared up at the sky. _'Why me..' _he sighed inwardly. He began thinking of what Igneel would say at a time like this.

_'Remember Natsu, I, Igneel, am with you!'_

Natsu sighed sadly, remembering the words he had heard from Igneel when he was fighting Master Zero. He cleared his thoughts of everything except his foster parent.

"Are you really with me, Igneel?" he asked solemnly as his eyes drifted off into sleep. "Father.."

* * *

**Magnolia Train Station**

"What do you mean it's not running?!" Gildarts spoke angrily.

The employee he was speaking to sighed. "It's like I said sir, there's been an accident, so the train traveling to Crocus won't be running again till tomorrow afternoon." This didn't seem to relax the angered mage in front of him.

"What happened?" Levy asked, hoping to get some answers.

"It seems that a section of rail tracks have been removed." the man explained. "Repairs won't be made until tomorrow morning. I'm sorry."

Gildarts looked like he was about to tear the entire station apart, but then relented and sighed. Juvia walked up next to him, deciding to give her thoughts on the matter.

"Juvia thinks this is no coincidence." she began. "Someone must have known we were heading to Crocus."

Levy crossed her arms. "It seems that way. They're trying really hard to slow us down."

Gildarts rubbed his chin. "This isn't good. We might be able to get a carriage to take us there, if we're lucky." he spoke.

"That's true, but it will probably take all night before we reach Crocus." Levy added. _'Gajeel..I hope you're safe..'_

"Juvia thinks there is no other way. We have to make do with what we have." Juvia said with determination. _'Gray-sama..'_

The Crash Magic user looked at the two girls, sensing their worry and frustration. "Don't worry, we'll bring them all back. I give you my word." The two girls perked up and smiled.

"Alright, let's go!" Levy chirped.

"Wait for me Gray-sama!"

_'These two..'_ Gildarts chuckled inwardly.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

"Hm..it's seems you were right to continue keeping an eye on things at their guild." Valeria spoke.

Nero sighed, uninterested. "I really wanted to fight that Gildarts guy, but our _**fearless leader **_told me to slow him down, not to engage him."

The woman snickered. "Aw, you're so cute when you're angry."

"What's with you? First you're saying that you're going to make Salamander your slave, and now you're saying I'm **_cute_**? Seductive or sweet, make up your damn mind already Valeria." the masked man grumbled.

Valeria pouted. "You're no fun."

"You're not that hot." Nero shot back.

The woman glared at the man, but then lost interest. "Oh Salamander.."

_'Dear God, she's annoying.'_

"So where's our fearless leader?" the masked man asked.

Valeria smiled slyly. "He's getting himself ready for tomorrow."

"Tsk. That bastard's always training non-stop. Are those three Dragon Slayers and that Requip user really worth all that trouble?" The young woman gave Nero a serious look. "Whatever.."

"There's a reason why he's in charge of this independent guild, Nero. I understand you have your doubts, but you'll have to trust him on this."

Nero scoffed at her. "I'll be honest, I don't really care much about this plan. I just want to fight some strong people. That's all." he replied flatly.

Valeria grinned menacingly. "Don't worry, you will fight them..those fairies will soon face the might of our guild.. the might of Serpent Fang."

Nero couldn't help but let out a low chuckle.

_'I can hardly wait.'_

* * *

**A/N: Welp, there you have it. Something I want to quickly point out: It seems I didn't elaborate too much on who is stronger between Natsu and Wendy after their victory at the Grand Magical Games. To make things clear, Natsu and Wendy are about the same level, after having his Second Origin unlocked, though I'd still give the edge to Wendy, since she's not as brash as Natsu is. There were a few people who said that I could make this into a NaZaWe fic. Now I've thought about that, and the idea is really sticking to me now, although I'll probably just make a different fic featuring those three. For now, let me know your thoughts on this chapter and I'll see you all on the next update. :3**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Shattered

**Author: Well, it took a while, but I finally got this chapter done. It would have been up sooner, but unfortunately for me, two family incidents occurred that pulled my attention away from the story a bit. Fun..-Sighs-**

**Wendy: A-Author-san, please cheer up! At least now you can focus on your stories.**

**Author: -Smiles slightly- You're right Wendy, no sense beating myself up over it, at least now I can focus my attention on my stories. So please everyone, enjoy this chapter. -Grins widely- If you would, Wendy.**

**Wendy: Hai! Fairy Tail and its characters (that means me!) are all owned by Hiro Mashima!**

**Author: Thank you Wendy.**

**Wendy: You're welcome Author-san. Please enjoy the story! -Smiles sweetly and bows-**

* * *

Morning came, and before they knew it, Natsu and his team were already on their way to the mountain site where Kornel's men were supposedly mining. It was still a ways before they reached the site, an hour and half to be precise. Luckily for Natsu, Wendy had cast Troia on the pink haired mage to help him bear with his motion sickness, much to Erza's annoyance. Gajeel on the other hand didn't receive the same treatment, mostly due to Titania wanting to punish the Iron Dragon Slayer for interrupting her moment in the café the day before. While his teammates talked about trivial things to pass the time, Natsu sat cross-legged in one corner of the carriage away from the others, his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He woke in a rather grumpy mood in the morning, mostly due to having slept on concrete the entire night, ignoring everyone.

"You think he's still mad?" Lucy whispered to Gray.

"What do you think? He hasn't said a word to anyone, not even Happy." the ice mage replied. "I mean, if I slept all night on a concrete floor, I wouldn't exactly be Mr. Sunshine come morning."

Natsu grumbled inwardly, his enhanced hearing picking up on their conversation. Erza felt that he was still angry about the day before with Gajeel, while Wendy looked curiously at her friend and wondered if maybe she and Erza were the reason for his unusual mood. The scarlet girl decided to attempt a conversation with the boy.

"Natsu.." Erza began.

No response.

"Natsu."

Still no response.

"Natsu, please!"

Nothing.

"NATSU!" Erza was getting irritated. She quickly went over to Natsu and grabbed him by his coat. "Damn it Natsu, I know you can hear me!"

The others watched silently as the now angered Titania began to shake the pink haired dragon slayer. Natsu eventually got fed up and opened his eyes. "What?" he growled in a low voice as he glared at Erza. Everyone was taken back by his reaction, even the female knight. She let go of his shirt.

"Y-you've just been really quiet. It's not like you Natsu.." Erza said, her voice trailing off.

The pink haired mage let out a sigh. "I'm sorry Erza. I just don't feel like talking." Natsu replied. He sat back down and closed his eyes again. The others looked at one another, not knowing what to make of the Fire Dragon slayer's odd behavior. Erza wanted to keep asking him what was wrong, but something inside her said not to despite all her protests.

_'I will definitely have to talk to Natsu once this mission is over.'_ she thought.

Before Erza could say anything, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned, and to her surprise, it was Wendy, her newfound rival for Natsu's affection. The Sky Maiden shook her head at the Queen of Fairies. "We should give him some space for now, if we keep bothering Natsu-san it will only make it harder for him to focus on this mission." Wendy spoke in a low voice. One could tell by her tone that she was just as troubled as Erza.

"I suppose you're right, Wendy." the scarlet mage relented, sitting back down in her seat. Erza always found Wendy easy to talk to after their return from Tenrou Island, listening to the red-head's troubles and offering her advice. She never mentioned anything about her growing affection for Natsu to the Sky Dragon slayer, though this was mostly due to the fact that Erza didn't want anyone to find out at the time while she figured out how to go about addressing her feelings towards the Fire Dragon slayer. Even now as Erza found herself competing with Wendy, something about the girl's manner of speaking during situations like this always seemed to put Erza's mind at ease.

_'I still remember when we first met you, Wendy..how you walked into Master Bob's villa and tripped..we were all surprised at the time that Cait Shelter would send such a child on a mission like that. Yet you saved my life Wendy, and then you proceeded to save Natsu's life as well. You even helped us take down Nirvanna..then just when we thought it was all over, it happened. To think that all those years you've been in Cait Shelter, you never once realized that painful truth..so much happened afterwards..'_

"I can see the mountain range!" Happy sang cheerfully. Erza was abruptly pulled from her thoughts as she gazed at the mountain range that stretched for miles, forming a physical wall separating the cities beyond it from the rest of Fiore. It was a beautiful sight to behold, to say the least. "We still have an hour to go."

"Good, I'm itching to get this done and over with." Gray cracked his knuckles.

"Please you guys, try not to destroy the entire mountain.." Lucy sighed as she crossed her arms. "I really need this money for my rent, or else I'm screwed."

Everyone laughed at the blonde, knowing full well how much she struggles with trying to pay her rent on time, usually because of a few certain people who knew little of the meaning 'holding back.' In the end, it was just another day on the job with Team Natsu, with the addition of Gajeel and Lily.

_'Some things never change.'_ Erza smiled inwardly.

As time went on, the wizards began to notice the change in scenery, the thick forest trail they were on now became an open plain field, as they stared at miles and miles of sea along the coast. Before long, they could see the small village Makarov had told them about.

"That must be Marza." Wendy pointed out as she sniffed the air. "I can smell a lot of fish too."

"That doesn't sound too suprising, they are a small village near the ocean, it's only natural for the people here to fish." Lucy commented.

By this point, Happy was once again in his own dreamland, surrounded by all kinds of fish. "Aye.." the blue Exceed drooled.

Carla face-palmed. "Is fish all you ever think about?"

"It amazes how he never gets tired of eating fish.." Lily commented. He looked back only to get a shocked expression from the blue Exceed.

Lucy put a finger on her chin. "Hm..the day Happy gets sick of eating fish would probably be the day Natsu and Erza don't destroy something on a mission." The blonde quickly shuddered as she received menacing glares from Titania and Salamander. "I-I mean the day when Gray stops stripping!"

"Oi, don't drag me into this!" the ice mage griped.

Wendy sweat-dropped. "Gray-san, your clothes.."

Gray looked down to see that his shirt and pants were now gone. "Oh crap!"

Yup, another day on the job.

* * *

**An Hour Later**

After a short detour through Marza, the wizards eventually found themselves right outside the dig site that Kornel said his men were mining. Upon arriving, they immediately noticed the area was deserted, the only signs of people ever having been around were various magic tools scattered about that were used for digging through rock and minerals.

"It looks like whoever was here left without a second thought." Gajeel grumbled, having recovered from his motion sickness, before shooting a glare at Wendy and Erza.

Wendy smirked in response. "Sorry~!" she said in a cute voice.

"It was your punishment, get over it." Erza replied with a menacing grin.

Gajeel backed off nervously. _'Evil wenches!' _he cried inwardly.

Natsu sniffed the air for a bit before picking up a familiar scent. "Hey, it's that guy's scent again." he said in a serious tone.

The other's looked at the pink haired boy. "You mean our client?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, I can smell it too." Wendy added. "He's definitely here."

Gajeel sniffed the air for a bit. "Whoa, there's something really off about this scent." he grumbled in disgust.

"Maybe he decided to come here to check up on his men. It could explain why there isn't anyone hanging around here anymore, maybe he took em back." Gray explained.

Erza shook her head. "No, that wouldn't make any sense, he said his plan was to retrieve the object inside, correct?"

"That's right..he can't expect us to drag this thing all the way back, he said it was massive..unless.." Lucy paused for a moment. "Unless he came here and they were attack by someone!" she said frantically.

"This is bad then, if they were attacked by a dark guild, then they probably took him hostage. They're most likely aware that we were on our way, so they're probably counting on us to break the enchantment for them in exchange for our client." Erza quickly concluded. "Can you smell anything else, you three?" she referred to the three dragon slayers.

Natsu's face turned dead serious. "I can smell three other people, and one of their smells is really pissing me off." he growled under his breath before taking off into the cave.

"Natsu, wait!" Erza yelled out. "Damn it!"

Gajeel suddenly ran past the scarlet mage, followed by Wendy.

"Geehee! Can't let Salamander have all the fun!" the Iron Dragon Slayer said with excitement.

"I have to stay with Natsu-san incase he needs help!" the Sky Maiden cried out as she disappeared into the cave.

Lucy let out a sigh. "Great, Natsu running in blindly is one thing, but Gajeel and Wendy too?"

"I wouldn't worry about them, they're the strongest Dragon Slayers in all of Fiore." Gray smirked. "Come on, we need to keep up with them."

The Celestial mage nodded as she followed Gray into the cave. Before entering herself, Erza turned to the three Exceeds who remained behind.

"Happy, Carla, Lily, I want you three to stay out here and keep an eye on things. Warn anyone who looks like a civilian to keep out of the cave, we don't anyone getting caught in whatever is about to happen." the red-head explained. "If we take too long to return, go back to Marza and see if you can find help."

Happy raised his paw. "Aye, sir!"

"Understood." Carla nodded.

"We'll make sure keep innocent people out of here." Lily added.

"Good." Erza smiled at the three before taking off into the cave. The inside was a long tunnel that went in a straight line. As she continued running, she immediately noticed how dimly lit the tunnel would become the further she ran in. After a few seconds of running, she managed to catch up to Lucy and Gray.

"It's about time you caught up!" the ice mage smirked. "It looks like the people who were working her were driven out."

"What do you mean?" Erza said, raising an eyebrow.

Lucy pointed to the right side of the tunnel. There were massive claw markings all over the wall, as well as a few holes and small craters. "Whatever it was that did that, it wasn't human." the blonde pointed out.

_'This is bad. If there is a creature roaming around here, it's no doubt under the control of the three people who Natsu had smelled.' _Erza thought. "How come you two haven't caught up with Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy?" she scolded them.

"Oi, you know how Natsu is, he's always running off without a second thought!" Gray quickly defended. "That guy has way too much energy for his own good."

Erza turned to the blonde, who just shrugged her shoulders. The scarlet mage let out a sigh of disappointment. "I'm definitely going to beat some sense into Natsu." she growled in a low tone.

They kept running for a good few minutes before they stopped for a moment as the tunnel was now splitting into three different ones. "Great." the ice mage muttered. "Now how the hell are we supposed to know which way they went?"

Erza thought for a moment before face-palming. This is **_Natsu_** they were talking about. The three wizards looked at each other before sighing.

"**Straight ahead.**"

Before they could continue, however, a black light suddenly filled the tunnel. They looked at the ground to see that a small black blob was now growing exponentially, standing between Erza and her two teammates. "Erza!" Lucy cried out.

"I'm fine Lucy, but we have bigger things to worry about!" Erza replied.

Gray put his hand on his palm, as a chill of cold air spread from his body. "**Ice-Make: Lance!**" he yelled as several spears made of ice arced from his hand towards the mass of black energy. The lances pierced into the blob, which unfortunately seemed to only make it grow larger. "Oh shit! This thing eats magic and grows!" the ice mage realized.

On the other side, Erza Reqipped in her **Heaven's Wheel Armor **and sent two swords at the blob, if you could call it that. Immediately, the creature opened it's 'mouth' and then proceeded to 'swallow' the two swords, as it's size began to grow alarmingly. "Damn, this isn't working!" Erza growled in frustration. The creature eventually began to take up too much space, forcing Erza to take the right tunnel, while Gray and Lucy took the left one. The scarlet mage Requipped into her normal armor and continued to run down her tunnel. After some time she stopped, realizing that the blob wasn't chasing her.

"It looks like their intention was to split us apart." Erza said to herself. She continued walking down the path before reaching a wide open area further down. The cave was dimly lit by a few lights and glowing lacrimas as she proceeded in, but then realized it was simply a dead-end. "Great, looks like I'm going to have to make my own exit."

"I've been expecting you, Titania." a feminine voice called out.

Erza quickly spun around to find a cloaked woman with brown hair and green eyes. Her skin was fairly pale, but Erza noticed that it seemed to glow at the same time. "Who are you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

The woman gave slick chuckle. "You don't remember me, Titania? Why I'm hurt." the woman pouted casually.

Erza's mind began to race as she wondered if she's seen this person before. Nothing came to her, until she started looking at the woman's features. _'Brown hair? No, I know a lot of girls with brown hair. Her skin? I'd sure as hell remember someone with skin as pale as that. Hm..her eyes..green eyes..' _Then it hit her. "You're that woman from the hotel!"

The woman smiled. "Ah, good memory. My name is Valeria." she mused with a slight accent. She quickly pulled her cloak off and tossed it aside, revealing a black skin-tight jumpsuit underneath that covered almost her entire body, except for the chest area, which had a long opening that exposed a great deal of her cleavage from her sizable breasts. One thing that immediately stood out to Erza was Valeria's guild mark right above her breasts. It was a snake's head with its mouth open, exposing its fangs.

"Are you and your other two friends from a dark guild?" the scarlet mage asked sternly. "What is your objective?"

Valeria let a small giggle escape her lips. "Please do not compare us to those wretched, good for nothing hoodlums." she said sweetly. "We are an..independent guild, I'm sure you've heard of them..I understand a certain azure haired man you know has his own as well."

Erza gritted her teeth. _'So she knows about Crime Sorciere?'_

"Jellal.." Valeria mused seductively, gaining the scarlet mage's attention. "The man who tricked the Magic Council to fire Etherion and use the R-system, but failed ultimately, only to return from the dead with no recollection of his evil pass deeds. The man who was imprisoned and escaped years later to form his own guild to punish dark guilds. The man..you loved."

Erza was ready to knock this woman's lights out, but Valeria simply frowned.

"But.." the woman paused for a moment. "It seems that you've moved on."

Erza had enough. "What is your objective?!" she asked harshly.

Valeria grinned, knowing her attempts to get under Titania's skin were taking effect. "Oh? We require a certain type of..magic. A Lost Magic. One that's used to slay dragons, perhaps?" the woman smiled.

Erza's eyes widened. _'They're after Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy!'_

"That is Serpent Fang's objective. However, I do have my own objective, Erza Scarlet." Valeria's face became more serious. "And it's something that you have."

_'Great, don't tell me she's after my title too..maybe she and Evergreen should be friends..'_ Erza thought. "If you're after my title, then good luck, I don't even know who gave it to me."

Valeria gave a quick laugh before putting her hand up and moving her index finger back and forth. "Tsk, tsk. I could care less about your title. What I want is something more..tangible."

"What the hell is it then?!" Erza asked irritably, getting fed up with the woman's manner of speaking.

The woman gave Erza a devilish grin. "Salamander."

Valeria quickly jumped back as the scarlet mage brought her sword down where the woman was previously standing. "I see.." Erza began as a dark aura surrounded her. "This isn't just a normal battle anymore. No..this is something personal now." she looked up to give Valeria a menacing scowl. "**I will personally make sure that you will not lay a finger on Natsu**."

The woman smiled back seductively. "Oh, but I will. His scarf, his hair, his body. I will make all of it mine, all for my pleasure. **I will make Natsu Dragneel into my perfect slave**." Valeria licked her lips.

Erza finally snapped as she Requipped back into her **Heaven's Wheel Armor **before unleashing a barrage of her swords at the woman before her. "**Blumenblatt**!" Valeria grinned as the swords continued their path of destruction towards her. Erza then noticed that a strange purplish black energy began to form around Valeria's right arm. Her eyes widened as the woman's arm became a purplish black sword. "**Blade Of Darkness**!" Valeria swung the sword in a vertical arc into the ground, unleashing a black wave of dark magic at her opponent that quickly broke through all of Erza's swords, shattering them to pieces. Erza quickly sidestepped the incoming wave, only for Valeria to appear in front of her. The woman's right hand became a black claw as she tried to slash at Erza's stomach, only for the scarlet mage to block the attack with her swords, locking horns for a few moments, so to speak. The two women glared at each other before jumping away in opposite directions.

"I see you're as good as the rumors say, Titania." the woman commented. "You're the first to dodge my opening attack, as well as being able to block my follow-up attack."

Erza gave the woman a smirk. "You're no push over either, Valeria. You cut through all my swords and your speed impressed me greatly." she praised. "You almost had me. Almost." The scarlet mage quickly Requipped into her **Flight Armor **and charged at the woman with great speed. Valeria readied herself, but before Erza came within a few feet, the red-head vanished. Quickly appearing behind her opponent, the scarlet mage prepared to attack only to find that the woman was glowing with a dark purple aura. "**Black Urchin**!" Numerous black spikes shot out of Valeria's body, shooting off in all directions, a few grazing Erza in the arms and legs as the scarlet mage backed off. Erza quickly noticed that the spikes left some black residue that slowly seeped into the cuts on her arms and legs. Her body was slowly beginning to feel heavy.

"What did you do?" Erza scowled.

Valeria merely grinned. "A sea urchin has various spines it uses for protection. Each spine contains a toxin that slowly numbs the body."

_'Great, so basically it'll slow my body down until I'm too tired to move.'_

"Don't worry, it takes a while for the poison to take effect. I wouldn't want to end this fight so quickly." the woman spoke in a sweet tone before her face turned twisted. "I want to see you suffer some more!"

* * *

**Gray and Lucy**

"Watch out!" Gray yelled as he and Lucy jumped away from each other to avoid a black tendril that lashed out at them. "Jeez, this is a pain in the ass.."

The black tendril retracted backed into the mouth of a large black reptilian-like creature. It narrowed its glowing green eyes on the two wizards before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

"Gray Fullbuster and Lucy Heartphilia.." a young man's voice spoke. "Tsk. Looks like I drew the short straw."

The two wizards looked at a small black spider that quickly morphed into a cloaked figure with a mask on. The mask covered most of the person's face, the only thing visible being his serpent-like eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Gray asked in annoyance.

The young man sighed. "If you really want to know, it's Nero." he replied with little interest. "And before you ask, I'm from Serpent Fang." Nero replied while he examined his cloak.

Lucy popped a vein. "We weren't going to ask you that!"

"Maybe, but you were probably thinking it." Nero shrugged before placing his right hand on the ground. "**Darkness-Make: Viper Fang.**" Several black snakes shot out of the ground in front of the man and flung themselves at Lucy and Gray. The ice mage responded by placing his hand in his palm. "**Ice-Make: Lance!**" Several ice spears shot back and intercepted the incoming snakes. Nero quickly jumped to the left to prepare his next attack, but then noticed a bright light behind him. "**Gate of the Lion, I Open Thee: Leo!**" Lucy cried out as Loke appeared and kicked his leg at the masked man. Nero quickly crossed his arms in an X formation and blocked the attacked, then used the momentum from Loke's kick to launch himself away from his opponents. "Looks like fighting you two will actually be a challenge. Good..looks like this will be my first real fight in a long time!" Nero screamed with joy.

"Oi, we're not here for your entertainment!" Gray angrily shouted back.

"That's right, we have a job to do and you're in our way!" Lucy added.

Loke crossed his arms. "Anyone standing in the way of Lucy and Fairy Tail is my enemy." he said calmly.

Nero just shook his head. "Bah, you'll never understand. I've waited forever to fight some powerful people, up till now all I've ever fought were weaklings." he sneered as he raised his palm into the air. "**Darkness-Make: Wasp Sting!**" Three large black wasps suddenly formed above his palm and zipped towards their targets at blinding speed.

"Watch out!" Loke screamed as he pushed Lucy out of the way of one of the wasps, it's stinger missing it's target by mere inches.

_'This guy's Molding Magic is like Lyon's, only with darkness..' _Gray concluded as he dodged one of the wasps. "Which means that he might not be that strong in physical combat. Lucy, Loke, we need to get close to that guy!" he yelled at his teammates. "**Ice-Make: Cold Excalibur!**" Gray brought down a large two-handed sword made of ice, quickly swinging it diagonally as he destroyed the three wasps in one strike. "Now!"

"Got it!" Loke roared as he quickly ran towards Nero with Lucy following close behind.

The blonde pulled out her whip and quickly caught the masked man in its grip. "Now Loke!"

The leader of the twelve Zodiacs quickly charged his magic into his fist before launching a lion shaped beam of light at his opponent. "**Regulus Impact!**" The attack quickly charged towards Nero, who simply began laughing, much to the others surprise. "**Darkness-Make: Hedgehog Razor!**" The masked man's entire body was covered in razor-sharp spines that cut up Lucy's whip, freeing himself. Ducking under the spirit's attack, Nero quickly rushed towards Loke. "**Darkness-Make: Katana!**" A black katana quickly formed in tha masked man's hands before slashing at the spirit's upper chest. After kicking Loke away, Nero quickly turned his attention to the other two wizards. "**Darkness-Make: Machine Gun!**" Two black automatic guns formed in both of the man's hands as he let loose a barrage of bullets at Gray and Lucy.

"Gah!" the ice mage grunted as the bullets hit against his body. "This guy is freaking ridiculous!"

"Ugh! You're telling me!" Lucy growled as used the remains of her whip to counter as many bullets as she could. She looked over to Loke, who was still recovering from Nero's sword slash. "So this guy can use both Dynamic and Static Molding Magic.."

"**Ice-Make: Shield!**" Gray shouted as the barrage of bullets continued. "Ur mentioned this type of Molding Magic before, but she never told me it was this powerful!"

The attack suddenly stopped as the two weary wizards looked at their enemy. Loke made it back to his feet to join them. "Wow, you guys really are strong!" Nero said with excitement. "I've always beaten others with one attack, but you guys survived several! Let's keep having fun!" the masked man screamed insanely as he charged at the three wizards.

_'Damn it, this doesn't look good.'_ Gray thought as he watched his opponent running towards them. _'I hope Natsu and the others are alright..'_

* * *

**Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy**

Natsu continued running down the tunnel that was leading him to the irritating scent he smelled earlier. As he ran closer to the source, Natsu could hear an irritating voice call out to him.

"Salamander!" Gajeel roared as he and Wendy continued to chase after Natsu. "Bastard, I know you can hear me!"

Wendy let out a sigh. "Just drop it, Gajeel-san. When need to keep up with Natsu-san before we lose sight of him." the Sky Maiden replied calmly.

The Iron Dragon slayer gave an irritating huff. "Bastard's nose is too strong for his own good."

"Natsu-san can't help it, his nose has always been like this." the blue haired girl defended Natsu. "At least he's reliable, unlike a certain Dragon Slayer I know.." she mused with a smirk.

"I am reliable!" Gajeel countered. "I am just as strong as that flaming idiot."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then how come you haven't settled the score with him then, hm?" she quickly shot back.

Gajeel was at a loss for words. "It's because..uh..you know, this and that always happens so I never get the chance!"

"I knew it, you're scared." the bluenette teased.

"The hell I am! I'll kick his ass and rip him to pieces and then use him as a heat source!" the Iron Dragon Slayer roared. before he felt a menacing aura next to him.

Wendy turned and gave Gajeel a menacing glare, grinning slightly. "**Oh, will you now?**" she said in a dark tone.

"I was just kidding! Haha!" he nervously replied. _'Man, she's just as scary as Erza..'_

The Sky Maiden's expression turned into that of a cute little girl with a sweet smile. "Good~!" she said sweetly.

_'Just like that?!'_ Gajeel sweat dropped.

The two dragon slayers quickly noticed a bright light up ahead as they entered a large cave. As they waited for the light to die down, Wendy saw that Natsu was now standing still. She was about to call out his name, but then froze when her eyes finally processed what they were standing in front of. A massive white lacrima was standing in the middle of the cave, and like their client had described, it was in the shape of a dragon. It towered over them, almost as if challenging them to a fight.

"Damn..this thing is huge.." Gajeel muttered.

Wendy was speechless, the words failing to form as she opened her mouth slowly.

Natsu stared at the lacrima for a moment before walking towards the object, but as he took two steps, several red symbols appeared before him that quickly spread out in a large radius around the object.

"That must be the enchantment Mr. Veznov mentioned." Wendy remarked, having regained her composure. "He said this kept anyone from getting near the object."

The Fire Dragon Slayer walked over and placed his hand against the red symbols. They reacted to his touch as they changed from green, then to white before they disappeared completely as the lacrima in the middle began to glow brightly. Natsu took a step forward, but immediately sensed something was wrong as he jumped back suddenly. "Stay away from that thing you guys!" he quickly yelled. Before Gajeel or Wendy could ask what was wrong, two black hands appeared behind them and threw them at the lacrima, slamming them into the ground in front of it. The Sky Maiden rose to her feet, but then dropped to one knee as she suddenly felt weary and tired. The result was the same for the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"W-what's happening?" Wendy cried out. "It feel's like..my magic's being drained from my body.."

Gajeel let out a grunt as he attempted to stand on his feet, only to fall down to one knee again. "Mine too..what the hell is doing this?"

_'Shit! I need to act fast before the lose all their magic!' _Natsu thought frantically. An idea suddenly came to mind when he remembered a certain purple-flame using mage. "Hold on you two, I'll get you both out of there!" Natsu yelled as he extended his arms forward. Two giant claws made of fire quickly formed, which shot out from his hands towards his fellow Dragon Slayers as the pink haired boy grinned. _'What would I do without you, Macao..' _As the hands were within a few feet of his teammates, his grin faded. The claws had began to breakdown into pure magic before flowing into the lacrima. "Shit, it absorbed it." Natsu grumbled under his breath.

"An interesting idea you had there.." a deep masculine voice called out. "Too bad it didn't work."

Natsu looked around only to find nothing. He couldn't see or smell anything, but the voice he heard sounded like it was standing right next to him. The Salamander quickly jumped back as a person's body began to form right before his eyes. A tall man with black hair crossed his arms as he examined Natsu. He wore simple chain mail armor over his upper body, while he wore a pair of loose-fitting military style pants with black boots on his lower body. "So you are Natsu Dragneel..Fairy Tail's Salamander. You are much shorter than I had expected you to be." he said in a casual tone.

_'Who is that man?'_ Wendy thought as she struggled to her feet once again.

Gajeel glared at the person. _'That guy's no ordinary mage..'_

Natsu's sense of smell immediately alerted him to the man's scent. "So it's you..you're the guy whose scent was pissing me off." he grinned. "I don't know what you and your friends are planning, but you won't get away with it!"

The older man chuckled. "Interesting. How do you suppose going on about that?"

"By kicking your ass!" Natsu roared as he cocked his arm back and rushed at the man. "**Fire Dragon's Iron First!**" His fist became ablaze as he swung his arm in a vertical arc. The man quickly jumped away as Natsu's attack smashed into the ground, spraying debris everywhere and leaving a small crater.

"Now, now, it's a little rude for you to just attack someone without hearing their name." the man smirked as he took on a fighting stance. "I am Master Blaine, the guild master of Serpent Fang." The man quickly rushed towards Natsu at blinding speed, catching the dragon slayer off guard. Blaine quickly drove his knee into Natsu's gut before following up with a headbutt as he began to mercilessly pummel the pink haired boy. After a few more blows, the man picked up Natsu by his coat and slammed his fist into his gut, launching him against the cave wall. Natsu quickly recovered, much to Blaine's surprise. "I see you're as tough as they say, Salamander."

Natsu winced slightly from the sudden attack, but then gave the man a huge grin. "Now I'm fired up!" he roared as he launched himself back at his opponent. Natsu lit his feet ablaze, boosting his speed as he caught Blaine off guard with a punch to the head. "**Fire Dragon's Talons!**" he yelled as he spun like a top, striking the man several times with his flame enhanced kicks. Before the man could recover, Natsu quickly went on the offensive as he unleashed a barrage of flaming punches, raining down blows on his opponent before finishing with his favorite move. "**Fire Dragon's Roar!**" Natsu blasted Blaine at point-blank range with his roar, destroying a large area of the cave wall as the ceiling began to crumble down. _'Crap, I've gotta be careful how much damage I do or else this whole place will cave in.' _he thought.

"Natsu-san!" Wendy said with a smile, while Gajeel simply grunted.

"Hm. Show off." the Iron Dragon Slayer grinned slightly.

The pink haired mage was pulled back from his thoughts as he heard clapping coming from the hole he had made. Blaine slowly walked out looking relatively unscathed, except for his cape and pants which were now torn. "Excellent. You are indeed the child of Igneel." the man said as he grinned at the boy.

Natsu's eyes widened. "What do you know about Igneel!" he demanded.

"Oh? Still haven't found him? That's unfortunate.." Blaine began. "I was hoping you could lead me to the bastard of a dragon who killed my father!" he roared. Natsu was taken back by the man's sudden anger.

"What do you mean father?" the dragon wizard asked curiously. The man glared back at him with fury in his eyes before he took a deep breath to calm himself.

"It's unfortunate that I haven't found that damn lizard.." Blaine said with a slight smirk. "But it seems I have the next best thing, his son. I will get my revenge on him by killing you!."

Natsu frowned. _'Great, one of Igneel's enemies has come seeking revenge..thanks a bunch dad.'_ he thought sarcastically. "Igneel would never think about harming a human, let alone kill one!" Natsu defended his father.

"That's right!" Wendy quickly interjected. "Dragon's are intelligent beings who would never do such a thing without a good reason!"

Blaine's face quickly took on a menacing grin. "My father wasn't a human.." he said as he watched the three Dragon Slayers stare back with wide eyes.

"W-what..?" Wendy's voice trailed off.

Gajeel gritted his teeth. "So you're saying that.."

"..You're a Dragon Slayer too?" Natsu finished.

The man quickly let out a loud laugh. "Me, a _**Dragon Slayer**_? How rich!" Blaine hollered as his voice echoed in the cave. "I'd never dream of being taken under the wing of one of those overgrown lizards." he sneered.

The three Dragon Slayers gritted their teeth at his insult. "Then what the hell are you?!" Natsu roared back.

"Me? I'll tell you then.." Blaine grinned, exposing his fangs. "**I'm a** **Hydra Slayer**." he said quietly before rearing his head back as the others stared at him in shock.

Wendy was the first to snap out of her shock, realizing what the man was about to do. "He's going to attack, Natsu-san!" Natsu quickly recovered only to realize he was a second too late.

"**Black Hydra's Howl!**" Blaine howled as a massive beam of black energy shot from his mouth towards Natsu, the latter getting blown away by the attack. The pink haired mage landed with a resounding thud on the ground.

"Salamander!" Gajeel roared as he started running towards Natsu, only to be pushed back by a pair of black hands.

"Stay out of this, Black Steel. This is none of your concern." Blaine demanded.

_'No, at this rate Natsu-san will be killed!'_ Wendy thought frantically. Her fears grow more as Natsu started to get back up. "**Sky Dragon's Roar!**" the Sky Maiden howled, only for the attack to breakdown into magic and flow into the lacrima. _'Damn it!'_

Natsu got back to his feet, albeit wearily. His breathing heavy, glaring daggers at the man standing before him. "So you're saying..that..you were raised by a hydra?" he asked with difficulty.

"Yes. My father was the Black Hydra Basryu, the most feared creature in the Southern Continent over forty years ago." Blaine began his tale. "He found me as a child after he had attacked my village and took pity on me. He took me on as his son and taught me his Black Hydra Slayer magic. I lived with him for several years before that blasted dragon did him in."

Natsu realized something as he squinted his eyes. "Wait a minute..a hydra has seven heads, don't it? How the hell can you call him your dad if he's actually more than one person?!"

_**'You**** know..he has a point.**'_ Wendy and Gajeel both sweat dropped.

Blaine merely smirked. "As interesting as it would be to explain that to you, I really should finish this." he replied as he prepared his next attack. "**Hydra Slayer Secret Arts: Seven Fanged Strike!**" Seven black hydra heads formed as they quickly shot out at Natsu. Still feeling the force from the man's previous attack, the pink haired mage only braced himself as the heads struck him simultaneously, launching him in the air. As his body fell back down, one of the heads quickly wrapped itself around the dragon slayer's neck. "Ah, I wonder what the mighty Igneel would think if he saw me strike down his son."

"NATSU-SAN!" Wendy screamed as she ran towards them, only to be held back by multiple black hands. "LEAVE HIM ALONE, YOU'VE ALREADY BEATEN HIM!" she cried as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"We..ndy..Ga..jeel.." Natsu whispered before losing consciousness.

The man simply smirked at her before turning his attention back to Natsu. "It's not enough, not for me."

Gajeel was at the end of his fuse, but knew there wasn't much they could do. _'Me and the brat have lost too much magic now thanks to this thing. Damn it! I hate feeling useless!'_

"Unfortunately, that will have to wait for another day." a voice interrupted. "I believe I made it clear that we needed every Dragon Slayer alive."

Blaine quickly stopped his attack and turned to a figure now standing behind him. He frowned as he willed the hydra head to toss Natsu away. It complied and quickly threw the unconscious body of Salamander at the lacrima, landing between Wendy and Gajeel. Without missing a beat, the Sky Maiden rushed over to Natsu, cradling his head before glaring daggers at Blaine and the other person. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw who it was. "Y-you're our client!"

The same man they had met the day before at the museum was now standing next to the man who had just mercilessly beaten Natsu. "Well hello, Sky Maiden. Black Steel, it's an honor to finally meet you." he said.

"Like hell you are, bastard!" Gajeel retorted. "What kind of crap are you pulling here?!"

"What's the meaning of this, Kornel?" Wendy asked angrily.

Kornel let out a sigh before shaking his head. "My, my, curious now, aren't we? Curiosity killed the cat after all." he said in a neutral tone.

Suddenly, a black magic circle appeared next to the two men, as the masked man known as Nero rose up from the ground, followed by two unconscious bodies. "Ah, Nero, I see that you finished up." Blaine remarked with a grin.

"Lucy! Gray!" Wendy cried out as she stared at the bruised and battered bodies of the ice mage and celestial mage.

The masked man sighed, uninterested. "They put up a challenge, but didn't last very long." Nero replied with dissapointment in his voice.

"Answer my question!" the Sky Maiden repeated harshly.

Kornel looked at her with an emotionless face. "If you must know, child, I need your Dragon Slayer magic for a certain..ceremony." Wendy's eyes widened as the man continued. "That Dragon Lacrima absorbs and then stores Dragon Slayer magic from said wizards standing within its radius, and it will keep absorbing it until there is nothing left."

Gajeel let out a low growl. "I see. This bastard lied to you guys and tricked us into breaking the enchantment so he could steal our powers.."

"Very perceptive, Black Steel. It's unfortunate you were unable to realize that sooner." he remarked.

"You guys forgot about Erza!" the blue haired girl shot back. "She won't let you get away with this!"

Just then, a loud rumbling noise was heard, followed by a crash as two figures came flying into the room through another hole in the wall. Kornel and his two associates watched as Valeria and Erza quickly clashed with each other, neither one giving up an inch. After a quick stare down, Valeria quickly jumped away and joined her comrades. Erza was shocked to see Lucy and Gray laying on the ground unconscious next to them. "Gray! Lucy!" the scarlet mage yelled before noticing the two Dragon Slayers. "Wendy, Gajeel, thank goodness you're okay."

The Sky Maiden was also relieved to see that her scarlet haired friend was alright. "Erza! They set us up!"

"I know.." Erza began. "That woman over there already told me about their objective." her scowl grew to a surprised expression when Erza noticed that Kornel was standing among them. "Mr. Veznov?"

"Titania." Kornel replied.

"That bastard is on it this too.." Gajeel warned her. "I'd even say it was his plan from the beginning."

"No.." Erza whispered in disbelief as she turned to the Iron Dragon Slayer. It was then that she noticed that Natsu was laying on the ground. "What happened to Natsu?!" she ask furiously as she quickly ran towards the three Dragon Slayers, but before Erza could get close enough, she felt her entire body freeze up as she fell to the ground. _'Damn it, don't tell me it's-'_

"Looks like my poison is finally taking effect." Valeria sneered. "I'll admit, it took a longer than I had anticipated."

Erza cursed herself mentally as she tried to force her body to move, to no avail. She managed to lift her head to get a glance at Natsu. "Natsu.." she said softly.

Almost as if on cue, Natsu's eyes shot open. "Erza!" he cried as he frantically tried to get to his feet, startling Wendy and Gajeel. The pink haired mage stared at Erza's fallen figure as he tried to run towards, only to be held back by numerous black hands. "Erza!" he fought back.

Erza managed to force a smile. "Natsu..I'm glad you're okay..I..GAH!"

The pink haired boy's eyes widened as Blaine slammed his foot onto Erza's back. "I see you can still speak, Titania."

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ERZA YOU BASTARD!" Natsu roared as his flames quickly erupted around his entire body, which the lacrima slowly began to absorb.

The man responded by repeatedly stomping his foot into her back as the scarlet mage screamed with each blow. "My, I think she like sit." he sneered.

Natsu's rage finally spilled over as his flames began to grow in size and in temperature, forcing Wendy and Gajeel to move away from him. He let out a deafening roar as his flames began to melt the cave floor, walls and even the ceiling. Blaine quickly jumped away from the intensity of his flames, his clothes getting burned despite not being in contact with the flames, though to his surprise, Erza was not affected.

"It matters not how much power you release, Salamander. That lacrima will absorb all of it." Kornel stated calmly. The enraged boy ignored him and continued releasing his magic as his magic power increased with each passing second. The previously calm Kornel was now looking in shock as Natsu's power continued to rise. _'Could this be the result of the Flames of Emotion? How could that boy possibly posses it?!' _he thought angrily. His associates took note of Kornel's worry as they stared at the raging inferno before them. Their shock grew even more as they noticed that the lacrima was now turning red, and then it happened; the lacrima was starting to crack.

"Impossible! He's putting out much more power than the lacrima can absorb. He's overloading it!" Kornel screamed, and for the first time since Blaine had met the man, he was startled.

As Natsu continued to overload the lacrima, Gajeel and Wendy decided they had to support him. They mustered up the strength to stand before looking at each other and grinning.

"Geehee, can't let Salamander take all the glory!" the Iron Dragon Slayer grinned wildly.

"We'll do this together!" Wendy yelled. The two Dragon Slayers reared their heads back as their cheeks puffed up. "**Sky Dragon's..**"

"**Iron Dragon's..**"

They put in all remaining magic into their last attack, knowing it was either go big or go home.

"**ROAR!**"

Wendy's and Gajeel's respective roars combined before slamming into the back side of the lacrima, making the crystal crack even further with the added influx of magic. The three Dragon slayers continued their assault, with the rest of the Serpent Fang guild watching in horror as their plan slowly fell to pieces.

Blaine gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I'm going to put a stop to this!" he roared, but the was stopped by Kornel who placed his hand on his shoulder.

"No..it's too late now." he said calmly. "The amount of Dragon Slayer magic the lacrima has absorbed has already exceeded it's capacity. No matter what we do now, it will break. I greatly underestimated these three Dragon Wizards. At this rate..**_he_** will be free."

"What do you mean _**he**_?" Nero questioned.

Blaine and Valeria narrowed their eyes on Kornel. "What have you been hiding from us?" the guild master said with some disdain in his voice.

Kornel let out a sigh. "We need to retreat for now. I will explain everything to you once we arrive. And I mean _**everything**_."

The man quickly started walking towards the exit, his associates looking at one another before reluctantly following Kornel. As their bodies began to disappear, he looked back one last time as the lacrima began to leak its magic power.

_'White Fang..'_

Erza slowly opened her eyes, still holding onto conciousness as the lacrima's magic power was now raging out of control. She looked up to see a white energy was now violently leaking out as the lacrima slowly began to fall apart. _'Natsu.'_ Erza's eyes fell on the pink haired boy who had collapsed from exhaustion, Wendy and Gajeel being in the same state. The magic power was finally released in a bright pillar of light as the entire mountain began to shake violently. The last thing Erza saw before everything turned black was a young man with light gray hair standing over Natsu.

* * *

**Fairy Tail, Infirmary**

The sun's warm rays shone on Erza's beautiful face, as the scarlet mage slowly creaked her eyes open, letting out a groan of discomfort. She found herself laying down in a bed in a purple dress.

_'Looks like I'm in the guild's infirmary.'_

The red-head slowly tried to sit up, as the soreness and pain from her body finally registered. Erza winced a little as she felt some pain on her back, recalling the events prior to ending up back at Fairy Tail. _'That's right..that man was stomping on my back when Valeria's poison finally kicked in and paralyzed me slightly.' _She examined herself as she found most of her body was bandaged up.

"They both still haven't woken up yet..Erza, you're awake!" a familiar voice called out.

"Mira?" Erza called out as Fairy Tail's resident bar maid entered the room. Mirajane quickly rushed over to help Erza sit up on her bed. "Thank you."

"We were a little worried there." Mirajane replied with a smile. "It's a good thing Gildarts showed up when he did."

The scarlet mage pondered this for a moment. "Gildarts brought us back?"

The white-haired mage nodded. "Levy and Juvia also came with him. Master found out that the client was actually an impostor and sent Gildarts, along with Levy and Juvia, to retrieve you guys." Mira paused for a moment. "How does your back feel?"

"It still hurts slightly, but otherwise it seems manageable." Erza replied. "Where's Natsu?"

Mirajane pointed to the bed to her right. Natsu was sprawled out on the bed, snoring softly like he didn't have a care in the world. Erza noticed that he was also heavily bandaged, almost looking like a mummy. The two women smiled at how cute he looked.

"How is he?" Erza questioned, some worry laced in her voice.

Mirajane sighed. "He was in pretty bad shape when they brought him back, but thanks to Porlyusica, he'll be up and about in no time. The rest of your team were also unconscious except for Happy, Carla and Lily."

"How long have we been out?" the fiery red-head asked.

"About two days. Lucy and the others recovered in one day, so they're already moving around." Mira replied.

Erza turned to look at Natsu, smiling fondly. She remembered how enraged he became when he saw her being defenseless. To her surprise, he began mumbling her name.

"Erza.."

Mirajane smiled. "He's been saying your name in his sleep for the past two days. You really are lucky to have someone like him."

The scarlet mage blushed, a little surprised by this, but then she softened her gaze at the pink haired boy. _'I really am lucky..'_

"Well.." the white-haired mage stood up. "I have to go back downstairs to check on the bar before Cana drinks all the alcohol."

Erza let out a laugh. "Alright, you better hurry up."

Before walking out the door, Mira turned back around and gave Erza a wink. "Have fun.." she teased as she closed the door.

The scarlet mage blinked a few times before realizing what the white-haired woman was insinuating. _'She knows!' _Erza thought frantically before another realization hit her. _'I'm alone in a bedroom with Natsu!' _Her mind began to wander with all the perverted things and scenarios she's read from the raunchy novels Levy had given her. A boy. A girl. A room. Erza's mind went into overdrive with all the dirty possibilities flowing through her head. It wasn't long before steam started coming from her head as her face turn redder than it had ever been before.

"..Erza..Erza are you alright.."

Erza smiled before she got up from her bed and went over to Natsu. She knelt down next to the bed as she moved some strands of his pink hair that were obscuring his face. Without warning, she found herself on her hands and knees standing over Natsu. Erza's heart began to race wildly as her body seemed to move with it's own will. She felt a shiver of pleasure go up her spine as Natsu moved one of his legs, slightly rubbing against her thigh. A small moan escaped her lips as she lowered her head to meet his, their lips getting closer and closer with each passing second. Then, just as their lips were about to meet, she hesitated. A thousand thoughts raced through Erza's head while every fiber in her being told her to do it. She could feel his warm breath as it washed over her lips. Erza finally mustered up the courage as she prepared to close the gap, only to be interrupted when the door to the infirmary flew open.

"Oi, flame-brain! Get up already you lazy bastard, it's been two days a-" Gray barged in only to freeze at the sight of his two closest friends having an intimate moment. His eyes widened as he saw Erza's and Natsu's lips mere millimeters from touching. His shock was quickly replaced by fear as the female knight's glare cut through him like a knife through butter. "Erza, I can explain, I-"

A loud, resounding crash was heard, as the members of Fairy Tail watched one Gray Fullbuster come flying across the guild hall from the second floor. They all sweat dropped as they looked at the slumped body of the ice mage, who was now almost naked after being punched right out of his clothes by an enraged Titania.

"I told him not to go up there.." Lucy sighed.

"Aye!" Happy chirped.

Gajeel grinned. "Hah, you owe me one thousand jewel!" he said to Mirajane as she walked by.

"Fine.." the white-haired mage huffed as she paid up.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "When did you two..?"

"Gray-sama!" Juvia cried as she ran over to her precious ice mage.

Lucy face palmed. "Anyways..has anyone seen Wendy?"

Happy frowned slightly. "She went outside for a walk, she said she wasn't feeling too good."

_'Poor Wendy, it might have something to do with Natsu going berserk over Erza..' _the celestial mage thought to herself.

Back on the second floor, Erza still had her fist out where she had just punched Gray, his clothes laying on the floor where he once stood. She took a deep breath before he face went back to its normal color. The red-head quickly turned around to hear Natsu getting up from bed.

"Did I just hear that perverted ice freak just now?" Natsu yawned as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Oh, hey Erza. How are you feeling?"

Erza didn't reply, she just stood there with her mouth hanging open.

"Erza?" the pink haired boy squinted his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"K-"

Natsu blinked.

"K-"

He looked at her even more confused than before, deciding to walk up to the knight.

"K-"

Once Natsu got close enough, Erza became eerily quiet as she hid her face.

"Erz-"

"KYA!" she screamed as she sent Natsu flying to the other side of the infirmary. His back slammed into the wall as he fell on his behind, rubbing his neck.

"What the hell was that for Erza!" Natsu roared angrily.

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, DAMN IT!" Erza shot back, her face as red as her hair, before turning her back towards the male dragon slayer.

Natsu raised an eyebrow before examining himself. "Oh crap! That ice bastard's rubbing off on me!" he yelled dramatically as he found himself in nothing but his boxers. He quickly found some new clothes that were neatly folded on a table and put them on in one swift motion, before he walked over and placed his hand on the knight's shoulder. Erza turned around a let out a sigh of relief as her heart was back in its normal place. The two wizards made their way downstairs while the members stared at the two, Natsu ignoring them while Erza sent death glares to remind them to mind their own business. They all shuddered before going back to their usual business.

"Where's the Master?" Erza asked curiously, noticing the absence of Makarov. _'I need to tell him what I saw before I blacked out.' _The image of the gray-haired boy was still fresh in her mind, though she wasn't sure what to really make of it.

Levy spoke up. "Actually, the master's been waiting for you and Natsu to wake up so you he could speak with both of you. He's in his office right now with Gildarts."

Natsu and Erza both blinked at the Solid Script mage, before looking at each other. The two of them shrugged and made their way up to Makarov's office, once again ignoring the stares they kept receiving from the others. After a few moments of walking, they came up to the Master's office, as Natsu knocked on the door.

"Come in." Makarov spoke loud enough for them to hear. The two wizards walked in to see the sixth Master sitting at his desk with Gildarts in a chair next to him. "Have a seat." The dragon wizard and the knight both took a seat as they sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity as  
Makarov gathered his thoughts.

"Master, we-"

The sixth Master raised his hand to cut her off. "Before we get down to the details, allow me to say that I deeply regret telling you about that job request, because of my carelessness, I put the two of you and your team in danger and as the sixth Master of Fairy Tail, that is unforgivable on my part." Makarov said apologetically.

"I'm sorry too, Gramps." Natsu began. "I made a reckless move and it put my entire team in danger. If I would have thought things out, this never would have happened. I charged in ahead of everyone when we could have fought the enemy as a group, a team. I have no right to lead them anymore."

Erza didn't know who to be more surprised at, Makarov apologizing for his actions or Natsu admitting his mistakes. Gildarts let out a smile as he saw how much more mature Natsu was becoming.

"Natsu, it wasn't all your fault, we all are responsible for what happened. We were careless, thinking this job would have been easy and the enemy we faced was a strong one to boot. We all make mistakes, Natsu, it's only natural." Erza tried to reassure Natsu. If there's one thing she hated, it was her closest friend berating himself.

"She's right, you know." Gildarts interjected. "Everyone makes mistakes. When we do, the best thing to do is learn from them and grow stronger, so the next time we face that same challenge we can overcome it with the best of our ability." he said sagely.

A smile formed across Natsu's face as he shook his head in understanding.

_'I'll always be there for you when you fall down Natsu.'_ Erza thought as she smiled. _'Just like you've always done for me when I fell down.'_

A grin now replaced the Master's face. "Well, now that we have that out of the way, I'd to hear the details of what happened during this mission." he questioned.

Natsu and Erza spent the next half hour explaining what had transpired during the mission, about the dragon lacrima and revealing that Kornel had worked with an independent guild named Serpent Fang to attempt to rob the dragon wizards of their powers to achieve their own goal, though the said goal was still a mystery to them. Natsu also went on to mention Master Blaine, the leader of Serpent Fang, and the fact that he held a grudge against the pink haired boy because of his father, Igneel. Makarov took a moment to process all their information.

"So, their guild master is a Hydra Slayer, huh.." the Master sighed. "This will be indeed troublesome if he decides to strike again.

"Hm, I've heard of that guild on my way back here." Gildarts added. "It seems they've taken out a large majority of the dark guilds out there, though it seems they are simply doing that to get obstacles out of the way."

Makarov let out a sigh. "Very well. Is there anything else that we need to know?"

"Actually, there is one more thing." Erza said. "Right before I blacked out and the lacrima finally exploded, I saw a young man appear from out of nowhere."

The Master and Gildarts look at one another, exchanging looks. "This young man wouldn't happen to have grey hair, does he?

Erza blinked. "Yes, how do you know?" she asked in confusion.

"Well, when me, Levy and Juvia arrived at the cave entrance, you guys were already laying down outside." Gildarts explained. "According to Happy, Carla and Lily, a young man with grey hair had somehow teleported all of you outside right before the entire mountain collapsed. When one of them asked for the boy's name, he only said one thing before he disappeared.."

Natsu and Erza leaned closer, waiting in anticipation, eyes wide. "**Well?**"

"..White Fang." the crash user finished.

Natsu tilted his head, searching his thoughts to see if the name ran a bell. "Well, I've never heard of it before."

"I have." Erza spoke, gaining everyones' attention. "I read it in a book that talked about myths and legends that Levy had lent to me a while ago. According to the legend, he was a very powerful mage who lived in the southern continent over two hundred years ago, in the Kingdom of Aznecia. The name 'White Fang' was given to him by the ruler at that time who was unable to best him in combat. But like the book said, it's just a legend."

"It's quite possible that this man is simply imitating his name, but who knows." Makarov said. "At any rate, I think it's important that we find this person and bring him here, he may have some kind of connection to Kornel and this Serpent Fang guild."

"I agree."

"Right-o!"

Gildarts gave a small chuckle. "Good, cause the two of you are on going on a search mission to find our little mystery friend." he added.

Natsu looked at the Master questionably. "Just us two? Wouldn't it be easier to go with the others, with bigger numbers we'd be able to find this guy in no time."

"That's true, but we don't know who or what this guy is, he might even be a Sensor Mage for all we know. If that is the case, going as a large group would be pointless if he's able to detect a large number of signatures in the area. That's why I've decided to simply send you and Erza." Makarov went into detail.

Natsu shrugged. "If you say so, Gramps. What do you think Erza?" he turned to the knight. "Erza?"

Erza didn't respond, or more so, couldn't. The moment Gildarts mentioned that the two of them were to go together on a mission, the scarlet mage's thoughts blocked out the rest of the conversation. _'This is perfect! Just me and Natsu on a mission together, no Gray, no Gajeel, no Lucy or Happy, and especially no Wendy. Just me and him. There will be no interruptions this time!' _she thought in delight. She subconsciously stood up and raised her hand in the air, oblivious to the stares the other three were giving her.

"Is everything alright, Erza?" Makarov asked, slightly worried.

"Don't worry Master, we won't fail you!" the red-head replied, completely ignoring the Master's question. "Come on Natsu!"

Natsu was now being dragged out of the room by a determined Titania. "Fine, just stop dragging me around like I'm luggage!" After a few moments, the two young wizards were gone, leaving the other two to contemplate what had just happened. Neither one spoke for a moment, both thinking the same thing.

"Do you think.."

"Those two.."

Gildarts and Makarov looked at each other.

"**Nah.**"

* * *

**Author: Well, there you have it. For some reason, finishing this chapter gave me a lot more determination to continue on with 'Love and Chaos.' After the first incident that happened in my family, I struggled for a bit trying to come up with the scenarios, and the second incident didn't help any further. My mind was plagued with too many thoughts about what happened that I had a hard time doing pretty much anything.**

**Wendy: Oh no! Things will get better Author-san, just hang in there! -Cheers-**

**Author: Thank you Wendy. -Smiles-**

**Wendy: Heh!**

**Natsu: Hey Wendy, whatcha doing?**

**Wendy: N-Natsu-san, how did you get in here?**

**Natsu: Oh, I just followed your scent and found you here.**

**Author: Do I smell something burning? -Sees smoke coming from downstairs- What the hell happened?!**

**Natsu: Oh, um, you know, no one answered the door when I knocked, so I just, uh..**

**Author: -Face palms- You couldn't just ring the door bell, could you..**

**Wendy: That's Natsu-san for you. -Sighs-**

**Author: I'm bringing Erza over next chapter. -Crosses arms- Anyways, as always everyone, let us know your thoughts on the chapter and story so far. Hope everyone has a great weekend. -Smiles-**

**Wendy: Hai! Have fun everyone!**

**Natsu: Yea, everyone-Wait, you're bringing over Erza next chapter?! -Cowers in fear-**

**Author and Wendy: -Face palm-**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Mist

**Author: Well, here's the fifth chapter to Love and Chaos. Been really busy the past week, glad I was able to find the time to complete this chapter.**

**Wendy: Yay!**

**Natsu: Awesome! Do I kick major butt?**

**Author: Perhaps, you'll have to read it. By the way, where's Erza?**

**Erza: -Appears behind author- Right here.**

**Author: -Jumps up- Please don't do that..**

**Wendy: -Laughs nervously-**

**Erza: I apologize if I startled you, if it makes you feel better, then please hit me!**

**Author: -Sweatdrops- Anyways..I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Would you like to do the honors, Erza?**

**Erza: Of course. Fairy Tail and its characters are all owned by Hiro Mashima. Anyone who says otherwise will be punished.. -Requips a whip- ..By me.**

**Author: -Raises eyebrow- Is that really necessary?**

**Erza: In the fight against evil wrongdoers, yes.**

**Author: -Sighs-**

**Wendy: Please enjoy the chapter everyone! -Bows-**

* * *

**Magnolia Outskirts**

"I hate this.."

Near the outskirts of the town, a lone blue haired young woman sat under a tree, her knees up to her chest. Letting out a heavy sigh, the Sky Maiden looked up at the blue sky, her mind occupied with her thoughts.

_'I guess in the end, I'll always be second to Erza-san..even though Natsu-san isn't even conscious of it, his instincts have already decided for him..I never had a chance to begin with.' _Wendy thought depressingly, heaving a heavy sigh. She remembered how the pink haired mage lost control and his flames erupted from every inch of his body, forcing everyone near him to move back, yet Erza was unaffected. At that very moment, Wendy's greatest fear became reality; Natsu had, subconsciously, chosen the scarlet mage over her. The bluenette's thoughts went back to when Grandine first explained how dragons and dragon slayers fell in love through instinct, and for dragon slayers specifically, they were almost always unaware of it consciously. The thought frightened Wendy at first, being only five years old, the then young dragon slayer's mind tried to comprehend the meaning of 'Dragon's Love' at such an age. Of course, she knew that Grandine did it for her sake, so that some day she would be happy. But what had scared the bluenette the most was when the dragon had mentioned what could happen to those who didn't realize it they were in love, until it was too late. If their loved one died or was taken by another, the resulting heart-break that individual would have to endure would be great, effectively to the point where falling in love with another would almost be impossible, almost like a trauma of sorts. That didn't mean it was completely impossible, however, it just meant it would take some sort of catastrophic event that would be so intense and soul-shaking that it would essentially shock that person, and their instincts, out of that trauma. And that wasn't the worst case scenario either; the great Sky Dragon mentioned a story about one such dragon slayer who lost his love to another and went berserk, whose instincts took over and went on a killing spree out of rage and sadness, killing all who stood in his way. Needless to say, love for dragon slayers was scary as hell. On the other hand, Wendy was a bit more relieved knowing that she hadn't picked Natsu by instinct and simply felt attracted to the pink haired mage because of her human nature, though this little realization didn't help to ease her thoughts at the moment.

"Moping around isn't going to make things better, you know." a cheerful voice called out.

Wendy turned to see Lucy leaning up against the tree. "Oh, Lucy-san.."

The Celestial mage sighed. "You know, I'd figure you'd at least smell me before I got here." she said, trying to lighten the mood.

Wendy smiled sadly. "I guess I was a little distracted at the moment.."

The blonde sighed, pausing for a moment before speaking. "Wendy, I know what happened." Lucy said aloud.

"How did y-"

"Gajeel." the blonde replied flatly.

The female dragon slayer sighed. "Figures he'd open his big mouth..I'll have to give that jerk a piece of my mind when I get back."

Lucy let out a giggle, making Wendy look up slightly. "Yea, Gajeel should know better than to let sensitive information like that leak out. Anyways, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I don't want to stick my nose in something that's none of my business."

"Thank you Lucy-san. I'm sorry I worried you." she replied with a faint smile. Wendy had always looked up to the blonde as a sisterly figure, even though now she was the older of the two. At the very least the female dragon slayer found it comforting being checked on by her friend, and no matter what they would do whatever it would take to make her happy again, even if it meant turning the whole world upside down. Wendy found herself giggling at the thought, which gave the celestial mage some relief to see that her friend wasn't as depressed anymore. There was a moment of silence, before Lucy decided to speak again.

"I know it isn't my place to say anything, but I think you should tell Natsu how you feel anyways." the blonde suggested, continuing before Wendy could respond. "It sounds like a bad idea, I know, but not saying anything and keeping it all locked away will only make it worse. I made the mistake of not making up with my father, even though deep down I knew he was changing for my sake..and unfortunately when the time came that I wanted to talk to him again, he had already passed away. I know it's the not the same for your situation, but you get the idea."

The bluenette thought for a moment, letting everything the celestial mage had said sink in. Lucy was right; not telling Natsu could be a huge mistake. Wendy would much rather continue being friends with him than have her own feelings and emotions ruin her friendship with the pink haired mage. Now only one question remained, and that was how to break it to the pink haired boy.

_'Telling him upfront would be the obvious choice, but Natsu-san probably wouldn't understand unless I explained it more, and then he'd probably just get confused.'_ Wendy thought. Then it struck her; there's only one sure-fire way to get through to Natsu. The female dragon slayer stood up, with new-found resolve and courage, knowing full well what course of action to take. She turned to Lucy and gave her a quick nod and smile. "I know what I have to do now. Thank you Lucy-san."

The celestial mage nodded in understanding. "Any time, Wendy."

"Is Natsu-san awake yet by any chance?" Wendy asked, hopeful he would be.

"Yea, but he was already sent on a mission by the Master." Lucy answered.

The bluenette tilted her head. "What kind of mission did he go on?"

The blonde thought for a moment. "You remember that guy who Happy said got us out from the collapsing mountain?"

"You mean that person who told Carla and the others that his name was White Fang before he went off some where?" Wendy questioned curiously. She herself was also intrigued by whoever this mysterious person was after being informed by the Exceed Squad of their rescuer.

"Yep, the Master sent him and Erza out to go look for the guy. Before they left, I heard Master tell them both that he heard reports of a mysterious person hanging around the woodland area in Crocus in the past two days, so I'm guessing they're going there first to investigate."

Wendy thought for a moment. "Well, hopefully they'll be alright. That person might have saved all of us from being crushed, but it doesn't really tell us what his real intentions are."

Lucy waved a hand in front of her. "Psh, I'm more worried about how that guy will end up if he refuses to come back with them. You know how short-tempered the two of them are sometimes, especially Natsu."

"You know, that's pretty mean coming from you." the bluenette deadpanned.

"Please don't tell them I said that.." Lucy shuddered nervously. _'I want to live after all..'_

Wendy gave the celestial mage a thoughtful smirk. "I'll think about it~!" she replied, making Lucy's face go pale. "Lucy-san, I'm only joking." Wendy stifled a laugh after seeing the expression on the blonde's face.

_'Well, at least she isn't moping anymore.'_ Lucy sighed inwardly. "Come on, Carla's probably panicking at the guild at the moment."

"Really? It thought she'd be glad to have some alone time with Happy." Wendy snickered as she put her hand over her mouth.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "You're dead set on having those two hook up, aren't you?"

Wendy neglected to respond as she walked past the blonde, who in turn followed close behind. They had only made it past two trees, before the bluenette froze, her nose picking up a familiar scent.

"Wendy?" Lucy asked, curious to why the bluenette stopped walking.

Wendy turned her head to see three cloaked figures appear behind her and the celestial mage. Her eyes widened when she recognized the man in the middle. "It's you!"

* * *

**Magnolia Train Station**

"I seriously need to get over my motion sickness one of these days.." Natsu sighed as he prepared himself for another long train ride. At least this time his arms weren't at risk of being ripped from his body.

Erza stood next to him. "Come on Natsu, we can't let Master down this time."

"Fine.." he grumbled under his breath. Unbeknownst to the pink haired mage, Erza was fighting a blush that was creeping across her face. The scarlet knight still couldn't believe that she and Natsu were on a mission, just the two of them. Though extremely excited at first, she was now becoming increasingly nervous at the same time, her mind wandering with all the possibilities, both good and bad. _'What if I say something wrong? Or I mess up? What if he says no? What if he likes someone else? What if he..' _Erza now had swirls in her eyes from overly thinking everything.

"Erza?" Natsu spoke. "You alright? You look like your dizzy." he asked curiously.

"I-I'm f-f-fine!" she stuttered back before walking stiffly onboard the train.

_'Erza's been acting really weird ever since Gramps and the Old Geezer told us we'd be doing this mission together..' _Natsu thought as he followed his partner.

Once onboard, the two wizards got their belongings settled in before taking a seat. As soon as the train began to move, Natsu keeled over on his side, the infamous motion sickness taking over. "I hate this..ugh.." Natsu burped, doing his best to hold his lunch back.

The scarlet knight gave him a sigh. "Natsu, you know you can always use my lap as a pillow." she suggested, trying to hide her pink blush.

"No thanks.." the pink hair mage shuddered slightly.

"Why not?" Erza replied angrily, slightly offended and a little disappointed.

Natsu glared up at her. "Because you always knock me out every time I get sick on a train! Punching me in the gut isn't necessary. I'm fine just laying my head on your lap, it's really soft and comfortable anyways, and it eases my motion sickness down to just an upset stomach." he finished.

Erza blinked, blushing at his statement as she stared back at the dragon slayer, who tilted his eyes to look in the other direction. _'H-he thinks m-my lap is soft and comfortable?' _she stuttered in her head. After regaining her composure, Erza softened her gaze at Natsu. "Very well, I won't knock you out if you come lay your head on my lap."

The pink haired mage eyed her suspiciously. "Promise?"

"Yes Natsu, I promise." she rolled her eyes, patting her hand on her lap.

The scarlet knight watched as the dragon wizard sat up slowly before shifting over next to her. Natsu eyed Erza one last time, incase she was trying to trick him, before slowly laying his head down. As soon as his head touched Erza's lap, his motion sickness began to slowly go away, and true to his word, Natsu was only left with a mild case of an upset stomach.

The sudden contact of his head touching her lap made Erza blush furiously when she remembered a scene from one of the dirty novels she read. It was a good thing Natsu was looking towards the seats in front of them, otherwise he would have seen the distinct nosebleed coming from Titania. "C-comfy?" she managed to get out. _'Calm down Erza, we're on a train! We couldn't do something l-l-like that in public! Maybe if we were in my room..'_ Erza thought to herself as another nosebleed came to her.

"Why do I smell blood?" Natsu asked curiously, too comfortable in his current position to look up at the scarlet mage.

"O-oh that! It's just that it's really hot today and I haven't been drinking enough water." Erza said louder than she intended to. She wiped the blood away with a white cloth before placing a hand on Natsu's head, gently caressing his hair. This slowly made Natsu more at ease as he felt sleepy, but did his best to stay awake.

"Erza." he said, getting her attention.

"Yes Natsu?" she replied.

"Remember the morning of the job we had when I was really grumpy?"

Erza frowned slightly, she had been meaning to talk to him about the exact same thing. "You mean that wasn't because you slept on the concrete floor?"

Natsu grumbled something under his breath, which made Erza giggle slightly. "Yea, laugh it up, I'd like to see you sleep on a rock and then wake up in a good mood. Gonna tell you this now; ain't gonna happen."

The female knight huffed. "Fine, but what was it that made you so grumpy?"

"I had a dream about Igneel the night before." he said seriously.

Erza looked down at the dragon slayer. "I thought something like that would make you happy."

Natsu let out a heavy sigh. "Well yea, but in my dream he was way too serious, he didn't even say hello or anything. He just kept saying something about a 'Foul Wind' and 'A Great Madness' and so on, the rest was too faint for me to hear. I spent the rest of that morning trying to figure out what the hell Igneel was trying to say to me, it was driving me crazy." he sighed.

Erza wanted to say something, but didn't know what. She just kept staring at the mop of pink hair in her lap. Trying to decipher the meaning of dreams was never one of her strong points.

"Even though it was just a dream, I still hoped he would've been happy to see me.." Natsu sighed, closing his eyes. "I really do hope I find him again soon.."

The sadness in his voice made Erza cringe slightly. What could she say? That he'll find him again soon enough? She's been telling Natsu the same thing for the past six years, thirteen counting the events that unfolded on Tenrou Island. For loss of better words, perhaps, but all she could do was encourage the dragon slayer. It wasn't enough, however. There was more Erza could do, more she could say, not just 'You'll find him soon' or 'Good luck searching.' What Erza truly wanted to say was 'We will find' or 'I'm with you Natsu, we won't give up' and struggle with him together.

"You know Erza.." Natsu spoke, getting the mage's attention. "..Usually thinking about Igneel makes me feel sad, cause of how he left me you know? But for some reason, being here with you like this..I don't know, it's just hard for me to stay sad."

Erza was taken back. "W-what do you mean?" Her heart was racing and she felt her face heat up. _'Is he going to..?'_

"I don't know, its hard for me to explain it..what's that thing called where everything happens for a reason?" Natsu thought for a moment before finding the right word. "Fate? Anyways, I think maybe it was fate that me and you met, that we joined the same guild. Maybe it was fate that we became friends, you know?" he said with a big goofy grin.

"Maybe your right." Erza said with a hint of disappointment. _'Idiot! Haven't you ever heard of soul mates?!' _she yelled at him inwardly.

"Something wrong Erza?" Natsu asked.

"Nothing, I'm just a little tired is all." she lied.

Natsu looked up at the female knight, but then looked away when she gave him a scowl. "Well, I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

Erza nodded, and before long Natsu was snoring softly in the comfort of Titania's lap. The mage sighed as she looked down at the dragon slayer. _'I should have known better than to expect Natsu to say something first.'_ she thought inwardly, but then softened her gaze. _'Well, it's not entirely his fault..I'll just need to have a little talk with Igneel when I meet him..' _Erza decided to enjoy Natsu's presence in the mean time, as she stared out the window of the train. Three hours seem to pass by in minutes, and before long Erza realized they arrived in Crocus again. She looked down at Natsu's still sleeping figure before shaking the male dragon slayer awake. "Natsu, get up, we're here."

"Five more minutes, Igneel.." he mumbled in his sleep. As cute as Erza found it seeing him mumble in his sleep, they needed to get off before the train would start to move again. Using her right fist, she quickly punched Natsu in the side of his hip.

"Gah! I'm up, I'm up!" Natsu grumbled loudly as he sat up, rubbing his side. "You couldn't take a more gentle approach?" he glared at Erza.

"How else was I going to wake you up? You're as thick headed in your sleep as you are awake." she retorted with a hint of amusement.

Natsu grumbled something under his breath about being considerate, but Erza merely brushed it off. "Come one, let's get going then." the dragon slayer finally spoke.

Gathering their things, the duo made their way outside the city outskirts and into the woodlands. They spent the next half hour advancing into the forest, passing up thick shrubs of bushes, gnarled trees, and various flowers indeginous to the region. The forest was very calm and serene, soothing to those who needed to get away from the cities for a change. Its green serenity also masked great dangers for those who were unprepared, as it only takes a second to find yourself surrounded by unwanted company, human or otherwise. As the two Fairy Tail wizards traversed deeper into the woodland, they began noticing a faint mist that quickly grew into a thick veil of fog within moments.

"Something's not right.." Natsu almost growled.

Erza looked at her partner. "Aside from the fact that its harder to see now?" she said sarcastically.

The dragon wizard narrowed his eyes. "There's something in the air that's blocking my sense of smell."

"I guess that just means we're going try harder then." the scarlet knight smirked slightly. "At any rate, we should stick close together, if we get separated in this fog, we're in trouble."

They continued walking deeper in, when suddenly Natsu's hearing picked up on something. "There's something coming our way." he quickly turned serious.

"Right." Erza replied, summoning two swords. It wasn't long before they began to hear ruslting in the bushes. A blur suddenly came into view as something tried to slash at Erza's neck. Thanks to her years of training, the scarlet knight quickly parried the attack with ease before she managed to graze whoever or whatever it was that attacked. The blurred figure bounced around in the trees several times before landing in front of the two wizards, revealing itself. Standing at what appeared to be eight feet, the creature had silver fur all over its body, claws on its hands and feet, yellow eyes, pointed ears and a long snout adorned by sharp fangs. "It's a saber-wolf." Erza stated calmly. "Don't let its size fool you, they're very quick."

The wolf-like creature stood on its two feet, barring fangs at its opponents. It let out a piercing howl, issuing a challenge at the two wizards. "Wait a minute, saber-wolves live up in the Northern continent, they prefer the cold over warm or hot areas. What the hell is one doing here in a warm place like this?" Natsu questioned.

"I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, it's here and it doesn't look happy to see us." the red-head replied, keeping her eyes on the creature. "We need to be careful; these things specifically target humans." she warned, having heard gruesome rumors of how saber-wolves inject their infectious magic into the body of humans, slowly turning them into their brethren and allies.

The creature snarled before charging directly at Erza at speeds that could even rival Jet's High Speed Magic. Titania managed to deflect the attack, but not before the saber-wolf dug one of its claws into her armor. The creature backed away again, this time using its speed to jump from tree to tree, attempting to confuse its opponents with its speed.

"Don't think you can catch use off-guard with something like this pal!" Natsu grinned before he jumped up and spun his body like a top. **"Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!**" Flames erupted from his hands as they began to spread out in an ever-increasing radius right above Erza, scorching some of the trees before finally hitting the creature, setting it ablaze. The saber-wolf fell to the ground, letting out howls of pain as its body continued to burn.

Feeling some pity for the creature, Erza decided to put it out of its misery. She walked over to it raising one of her swords, as it rolled on the ground in an attempt to put the flames out. Just as Erza prepared to strike the final blow, the creature immediately stood up and gave a deafening howl as it released a burst of magic, extinguishing the flames around its body. Its body now glowing, the saber-wolf moved at increased speeds, managing to land a blow on Natsu, knocking him back a few feet. Realizing things were quickly beginning to get out of hand, Erza decided she had to take the fight to the creature. "Requip!" she said aloud, as she took on her **Flight Armor**. Taking off at speeds equal to the saber-wolf's, the scarlet knight quickly began to clash with the creature up above in the tree tops. The knight parried several more strikes before striking back at the creature, who surprisingly managed to parry all of Erza's attacks.

Down below, Natsu began to concentrate his hearing on the raging battle taking place above him. He listened to the creature's rhythm of breathing and it's muscle movements before pinpointing where its next attack would be. A grin spread across his face as he remembered a piece of advice he received from Igneel when he was younger.

_"Remember Natsu, if you ever find yourself fighting a wild animal that uses magic, rely on your senses. Trying to outsmart it might seem like the obvious choice, but be aware just because a creature lacks intelligence, it doesn't mean they are any less dangerous; they rely on their instincts to survive, and they'll go to just about any means to ensure that they do."_

Natsu quickly jumped up as the saber-wolf realized a second too late that one of its opponents was attacking from below. "**Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!**" he roared as he drove his fist into its gut. The animal let out a surprised yelp, before it disappeared in a puff of white smoke. Natsu blinked a few times before realizing that the creature was actually a fake. Once back on the ground, he turned to Erza, who was relatively unharmed, save for a few nicks and scratches.

"I'm impressed Natsu." Erza said with a smile before Requipping into her normal Heart Kreuz armor.

The dragon wizard shot back a grin. "Yea, it's a good thing Igneel taught me how to deal with wild animals who use magic." he said before his expression turned serious again.

"Though I'm surprised that creature turned out to be a fake. It looks like someone made it with Pict Magic." Erza quickly concluded.

"You think it's that guy Gramps sent us to find?" Natsu asked, hopeful that their search wouldn't take too much longer.

"There's a good chance it could be. It would be a good idea to go in the direction that wolf came from, it might lead us straight to whoever created it."

"Right-o!" Natsu saluted before the two of them began to advance further into the forest. They went on for a while, before coming across the carcasses of several dead animals. "It looks like we're getting closer." Natsu remarked as they passed several broken and uprooted trees. The mist was growing thicker the deeper they advanced.

"It looks like a couple of fairies have lost their way." a gruff voice sneered.

"I wonder what brings Fairy Tail to these parts?" another, more creepy voice asked. Several more voices began to speak, while several others laughed.

Erza's face scowled. "Who are you people?" she asked harshly.

"Interesting..the great Titania and Salamander have come to our doorstep.." a completely new voice spoke, this one commanding respect. "I was hoping our little trap would help us snare that bastard who keeps interfering with our little plan.."

"Hey bastard, just who are you talking about?" Natsu demanded, a little ticked off.

The voice sighed before going on. "I see that he's not from Fairy Tail, I was certain he would be. You see, we've moved our base of operations to this area a week ago for a certain little ' safari round up' we had in store, but about two days ago, some grey haired punk showed up and crwed everything up, and he did it three more times to boot. He's become a real thorn in my side."

_'Could the person he's referring to be the one that we're looking for? The one calling himself 'White Fang?'_ Erza thought for a moment. "Identify yourselves!"

Several voices laughed before the one who seemed to be the leader spoke up again. "You'll find out soon enough. You two will be perfect warm ups before we find that punk kid and teach him what it means to cross the guild of nature, Forest Mist."

Various growling noise began to fill the air, as Natsu and Erza found themselves being stared at by hundreds of red eyes peering through the thick mist. The two wizards prepared themselves for the coming fight.

"**Come on!**" Natsu and Erza yelled as the red eyes began to swarm them.

* * *

**Fairy Tail Guild**

Makarov sighed, as he rubbed his temples to relieve his headache. The sixth Master was relieved that Wendy had come back to the guild in a much happier mood than when she left. By all means, he himself should be happy. But what prevented that happiness from occurring were the three people the female dragon wizard had brought back with her. Not that he had anything against them, he knew they were people with good intentions, but unfortunately for those three said people, they were also wanted criminals. He heaved another sigh before looking at the azure haired man with the intricate tatoo on his face, glancing at the other two female wizards; one with long, raven colored hair and the other with long, pink wavy hair.

"I understand your frustration, Makarov." the man spoke with a slight smile.

"Jellal.." Makarov began. "You do realize how much danger you are putting you and your guild in by simply being here, correct? Not to mention you are also putting my children at risk as well."

Jellal, the leader of Crime Sorciere, gave a thoughtful smile. "I understand that, but we have some important information to give to you that is well worth the risk." he said.

The sixth Master closed his eyes as he brought his hands together. "And what might that be?" he asked.

Ultear, the time wizard and former member of Grimoire Hearts, decided to speak. "It's about that guild that some of your members encountered recently, or as you now know them, Serpent Fang."

"What do you know about that guild?" Makarov asked as his eyes shot open.

"We've been tracking that guild ourselves, gathering any information we can get our hands on about them." Meredy spoke, another former member of Master Hades' guild.

The Master looked at the three wizards, giving them each a considerate look. "Very well, tell me everything you know about them."

The Crime Sorciere wizards smiled, with Jellal taking the floor. "Serpent Fang identifies themselves as an independent guild, much like we do, however their activity is no different from any other dark guild before them. They even attack other dark guilds they see as obstacles to their guild's creed."

"What is their creed?"

"To bring the world into chaos." Ultear answered.

Makarov sighed again. "It sounds like another guild obsessed with Zeref."

"That's what we believed at first, which is why we began to track them down. Though now we understand that they aren't after Zeref at all, but something else entirely, though what that is still unknown." Meredy added.

Jellal reached into his pocket and pulled out a small lacrima. After a moment, the object began to glow brightly, before an image of a cloaked man wearing a mask appeared above the lacrima. "As I'm sure you've heard, this man's name is Nero. His magic of choice is Darkness-Make molding magic. Similar to Ice-Make, he can create objects, weapons, and even creatures out of dark energy. He seems to have a great interest in fighting powerful opponents. Nero is also the person responsible for single handedly wiping out over twenty dark guilds in the past year."

The lacrima flickered, the image changed to a young woman with brown hair and pale skin, wearing a black skin-tight jumpsuit. "We've identified this woman as Valeria." Meredy explained. "We don't know what her magic is called, but we've analyzed it and discovered that it allows her to turn any part of her body into a weapon using dark energy. She also has a secondary ability that allows her to take control of any person, wizard or otherwise, of the opposite sex."

Once again, the image flickered and changed to a tall man with black hair, wearing simple chain mail on his upper body, sporting military style pants and boots below. "This is the master of their guild, Master Blaine." Ultear took the floor next. "His magic is very rare, a Lost Magic that is similar to the one that Natsu uses, except his is used to intercept hydras which is effectively called Hydra Slayer Magic. All other information on him is scarce, aside from the fact that he holds a grudge against the dragons and dragon slayers for the death of his foster parent."

"Yes, Natsu has already told me that his father, Igneel, was the one who killed this man's father." Makarov took a deep breath. "Do you have any information on a man who calls himself Kornel?"

The lacrima ceased glowing as Jellal stuffed it back in his pocket. "No, we don't know who that is, though if I recall his name has been mentioned by the members of Serpent Fang." Jellal frowned.

_'According to Natsu's and Erza's report, they seem to be working together for a coomon goal, something that involved Dragon Slayer Magic. If I recall, Wendy's version of this story revealed that Kornel wanted their magic for a ceremony. Are they trying to revive someone, unleash some kind of creature into our world? While Jellal's information has revealed what these dark wizards are capable of, it still doesn't give us the slightest clue of what they're after. For now, I pray that Natsu and Erza bring back that boy, maybe that child could shed some light on this situation.' _The sixth Master closed his eyes, absorbing all the given information. "Is see. At the very least we have some decent information about this guild, so it's a start." Makarov said, deciding to with-hold his thoughts for the time being. "If you come across any more information, please, inform me at once."

"Of course, we'll keep that in mind." Ultear smiled.

"Well then, is there anything else?" the Master spoke as he leaned back in his chair.

"Well, I'm hoping you could tell me where Erza is at the moment. I didn't see her out in the guild hall." he requested.

Ultear let out a sigh. "Not this again.."

Makarov raised an eyebrow as he heard Meredy trying to hold back a giggle. "I'm afraid she isn't here at the moment, I assigned her and Natsu on a mission together. They both left about three hours ago."

"I see." the azure mage replied.

"Is it something important?" the sixth Master asked.

Jellal shook his head. "I just wanted to catch up with her and see how she was doing. Do you know when she will return?"

Makarov gave the mage a thoughtful look. "Well, I sent her and Natsu to search for someone and bring them here. Depending on how fast they travel, it could take about several days, maybe a week. I sent Natsu along with her because of his heightened senses which I hope will give them an advantage in this kind of situation." he explained.

"He says he wants to catch up, but in reality he wants to get together with Erza for some **_alone_** time.." Ultear smirked.

Jellal's face turned bright red. "That is not true!"

The raven haired woman scoffed. "Oh, right, like I haven't heard that before.."

"Why you.."

"Is there a problem Jellal?"

"You're damn right there's a problem; you!"

"Are they always like this?" Makarov whispered to Meredy as the two Crime Sorciere wizards began to argue.

The pink haired girl gave a deadpanned look. "You have no idea.."

Just then, the door opened and everyone stopped what they were doing; Ultear had Jellal in a headlock as they both looked up to see Gildarts and Laxus staring at them. "Um..are we interrupting something?" the lightning mage asked, though truthfully he didn't really want to know.

The Crash mage moved closer to Laxus. "Must be a lovers' quarrel." Gildarts whispered, the lightning mage nodding in agreement.

"**WE ARE NOT LOVERS!**" Jellal and Ultear said in unison.

"They liiike each other~!" Meredy said cutely, making the two S-class wizards chuckle.

Makarov coughed into his hand. "Gildarts, Laxus, is there something I can help the two of you with?"

"Oh, right." Gildarts scratched the back of his head. "We heard some rumors going around that some shady looking characters have been lurking around Hargeon Town late at night. We were both thinking about going there to investigate, with your permission of course. Might have something to do with these guys we're dealing with at the moment."

"I see." the Master thought for a moment. "Very well, you two may go, but don't do anything rash, you hear me? They're still pretty pissed about what happened last time when Natsu showed up there."

The Crash mage and lightning mage chuckled. "Don't worry Gramps, we know how to hold back." Laxus replied. The two S-class wizards nodded good-bye before leaving the Master's office.

"Now where we-" Makarov cut off, seeing the two 'lovers' resume their quarrel. He rubbed his temples to ease his growing headache and sighed, glancing at Meredy who gave him a look of understanding.

_'This is gonna take a while..'_

* * *

**Crocus Forest **

_'This is getting really annoying..' _Erza growled irritably before she cut down a strange insect looking creature that lunged at her. She looked over to see Natsu burn several other ones with his roar. The two of them have fought non stop against wave after wave of creatures for the past twenty minutes, and it didn't seem like they were going to slow down any time soon.

"This is starting to piss me off!" Natsu roared as he kicked another monster in its face. "No matter how many we take down, they just keep coming!"

"We need to find the wizards who are casting this magic!" Erza yelled at her companion. "If we can stop them, we can stop these creatures from appearing!"

The dragon slayer grunted as one of the creatures managed to bite his arm. Natsu quickly elbowed it in the face before the creature as it fell to the ground, tears coming from its eyes. "Easy for you to say! I can't smell anything, this fog is too thick, and we have to deal with these things!"

"Is that all you two can do?" the leader's voice spoke again.

"Coward! Show yourself!" Erza retorted.

The voice let out a bizarre laugh that only served to anger the two Fairy Tail wizards.

"When I find you, I'm kicking your ass all the way to Magnolia!" Natsu said angrily.

The creatures suddenly stopped attacking randomly and began to coordinate their attacks. Erza jumped backwards and Requipped into her **Black Wing Armor**, slashing several creatures with one strike. She prepared another slash, but this time a large creature with a hard outer shell jumped in front of Erza, grabbing her sword. While attempting to rip her sword from the creatures grip, two more creatures, looking like bears, fired a snow attack from behind. Erza let out a scream as she felt her back begin to freeze slowly, which prompted her to Requip into her **Flame Empress Armor**. Quickly melting the ice, she managed to burn all the creatures around her as Erza swung her sword in a full circle, igniting them all on fire. "Natsu!"

The pink haired mage grinned when he saw Erza shoot a large blast of fire at him. He quickly grabbed the fireball with his mouth before proceeding to swallow it. "Thanks Erza! Now take this! **Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!**" he roared as he threw a large fireball at a group of creatures, exploding on contact and launching them all in different directions. Once the explosion subsided, they noticed all the creatures disappear simultaneously. "What happened?" Natsu blinked in confusion while Erza Requiped back into her normal armor.

"It seems those small fry won't cut it then, huh?" the leader's voice spoke again. "How about we try this then?"

There was a strange noise before they saw two more pairs of eyes staring back at them. "Wait a minute, those look familiar.." Natsu squinted his eyes.

"I think you're right.." Erza also squinted. Both of their eyes grew wide as the mist began to lift slightly, revealing the two new opponents.

"Those are.." the scarlet knight's voice trailed off.

"..Us!" the dragon wizard finished.

True to their word, two replicas, one of Natsu and the other of Erza, stood across from the real ones. They looked exactly the same as the originals, same features and clothing with the exception of their eyes, which glowed red.

Natsu growled under his breath. "What the hell is this?"

"This, my young Salamander, is my secret technique. Its called Copy Link, a type of Mirror Magic which allows me to create glass clones of other wizards with the same abilities." the leader replied. "It can only activate when one or more wizards have stepped within the casting circle for longer than twenty-five minutes."

The mist below the two wizards feet lifted, revealing a large green magic circle that was at least thirty feet in diameter. Erza narrowed her eyes. "I see. You used this fog to conceal the magic circle, while using those creatures to keep us within its radius for your magic to activate."

"Indeed. Now let's see how you do fighting against yourselves, hm?" the voice sneered.

"Hah!" Natsu snorted. "Like we'll lose to a pair of look-alikes!"

Erza smirked. "Those things are just emotionless puppets, they might have the same abilities as we do, but they lack feelings, conviction, and more importantly a conscious!"

"Oh? Emotionless you say? Lacking feelings? Then how about I show you a demonstration.." they could feel the man grinning.

Natsu and Erza got into defensive positions as the two replicas began to slowly move, their eyes stopped glowing becoming normal. Natsu's clone gave a big grin like the original, except far more menacing, while Erza's clone smirked slightly with a mischievous expression on her face. The clones looked at one another.

"_**You ready**_?" Natsu's clone spoke.

"_**Let's do it**_." Erza's clone replied.

The two wizards shivered slightly at their clones' tones. They had the exact same voices at they did, except they were slightly distorted, which made the replicas seem a little creepy. Natsu was ready for a fight when he noticed that the two look-alikes kept looking at each other, their faces got closer and closer until..

"What the hell is this crap?!" Natsu roared as the replicas began making out. "This is a fight, not a date!" The pink haired mage's eye twitched when he didn't get an answer, but instead the two replicas intensified their make out session. Soon, hands began to roam their bodies, touching, grabbing, squeezing, scratching whatever they could get a hold of. The real Natsu's face light up like a Christmas light as his clone's hand went someplace that pink haired mage knew would get him killed if it were actually him and the real Erza making out. The Erza clone let out a soft moan. _'D-damn it, this is way too distracting!'_

Erza stared at the scene taking place, her face as red as Natsu's. _'W-w-what is this?! Me and Natsu are..oh yea, touch me there Nats-Ah! What am I thinking?! This is **NOT** the time for this!'_

"E-Erza?" the pink haired mage stuttered.

The scarlet knight turned slowly to face him. "Y-yes N-Natsu?"

They both noticed how brightly red their faces were and shyly looked away from each other.

_'Erza's face is awfully red..wait, why hasn't gone berserk like she usually does?'_ Natsu questioned himself.

_"Get your head in the game Erza! This isn't the time to get distracted so easily!' _Erza scolded herself inwardly. At that moment, the two Fairy Tail wizards realized their clones had disappeared, only to get attack from behind.

"Gah!" Erza fell to one knee, feeling a burn on her back.

"Damn it!" Natsu cursed as he felt his back get slashed at.

The two wizards turned around, glaring at their replicas who were standing a few feet behind them, both grinning evilly.

"_**Man, that was too easy!**_" Repli-Natsu snorted.

Erza's clone closed her eyes and chuckled. "_**You should have seen the looks on your faces.**_"

Natsu lunged at the two without warning. "**Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!**" he roared as he tried to slash the two clones with his flame wings. The resulting dust and debris from the impact of Natsu's attacked made it even harder to see now.

"Did he get him?" Erza whispered to herself. Her answer came in the form of Repli-Erza standing in front of Natsu's clone wearing the **Flame Empress Armor**, cutting the damage from Natsu's fire based attack in half. The pink haired mage launched several more attacks in combination, which were either deflected or nullified. That's when Erza noticed something about Natsu's clone; he made no effort to eat the fire that was being sent his way, though the clone was still unaffected by the flames burning properties. That's when an idea popped into Erza's head as she turned back to Natsu. The scarlet knight cringed as the dragon slayer's face met with an uppercut to the chin from Repli-Natsu, followed by a swift kick to the gut from Erza's clone, sending him skidding in her direction.

Growling under his breath, Natsu finally stopped skidding and prepared his next attack, but was cut off by Erza who stood in front of him. "Enough Natsu, we have to work as a team. You're only burning up your magic by attacking recklessly." she stopped him.

"Fine.." the pink haired mage sighed. "Got any ideas?"

Erza smirked slightly, leaned towards his ear and whispered something. A grin played across Natsu's face as he nodded, Erza turning to face their clones once again. "Follow my lead." she said as she rushed forward, Natsu following close behind.

_'Hope this works..' _he gulped inwardly.

"**_A frontal assault?_ _You think we're that stupid?_**" Natsu's clone smirked back.

"Now Natsu!" Erza yelled as Natsu jumped up in the air.

"**Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!**" he roared as he launched another fireball at their duplicates.

Repli-Erza sighed. "_**This again? You never learn, do you? You already know that fire won't affect us.**_"

This time it was Natsu's turn to smirk. "You really think I'm that stupid?" His smirk turned into a grin as the fireball changed trajectory and landed right in front of their look-alikes, their eyes widening.

"_**Oh-**_"

"_**Shit!**_"

As the fireball hit the ground, it combusted violently, creating a shock wave that knocked the clones back. They flew several meters, the scarlet clone crashed into a tree while the pink haired clone tumbled on the ground.

_'Looks like Erza was right on the money. My clone might be immune to my burning flames, be he isn't immune to the explosive forces they can produce when combusting, and that goes for Erza's clone as well.'_

Repli-Erza fell to her knees, panting slightly as a small crack formed on her face. Her eyes widened as she saw the real Erza charging at her wearing the **Flight Armor, **and in response the clone pick grabbed her own sword, ready to block the attack, as Natsu's clone jumped her ready to strike down the real scarlet knight.

"**_Fire Dragon's Iron First_!**" he roared as he swung his fist at Erza, only to hit..nothing. Repli-Natsu blinked a bit before realizing it was just a ruse, his eyes processing what was now in front of him.

"**Crimson Lotus: Exploding Lightning Blade!**" Natsu let loose a torrent of lightning and fire blades that quickly engulfed their doppelgangers. Each blade exploded upon impact, as numerous cracks formed throughout the clones' bodies, worsening as more and more of Natsu's blades hit their mark. The explosions proved to be too much for the replicas to handle, as both of their bodies shattered completely, leaving nothing but molten glass on the forest ground.

Erza smirked when she heard an angry grunt coming from the surrounding fog. "Things not going as planned?" she taunted.

"You insolent little brats! I'll show you what happens when you try to make fools out of us!" the leader growled angrily. A loud inhuman growl soon made itself know, which quickly changed to a loud screech as the two Fairy Tail wizards found themselves face to face with another creature made from Pict Magic. Their eyes widened as the monster walked forward into view, its claws digging into the Earth. Soon it revealed its entire body; a large orange jagged beak, ears on its head along with white feathers going down to the base of the neck and brown feathers on the rest of its body, two large wings, four legs and a lion-like tail swinging at its rear.

"It's a griffin!" Natsu yelled in both awe and excitement. "Igneel told me about these creatures before, they're really powerful and they like to collect treasures and hide them in their nests. Oh man, I've always wanted to see one ever since Igneel described one, and it looks exactly like he said!" he yelled as his inner child surfaced yet again. The griffin and Erza both sweat dropped as they stared at the over excited dragon slayer.

"ENOUGH! KILL THEM MY PET!" the leader's voice thundered. The large bird began to beat its wings, creating a strong gust of wind that slowly picked up in force as the trees around them began to bend.

"Haha, it'll take more than that!" Natsu yelled with a big grin on his face. "Is that all you can do Bird Brain?"

"Don't provoke it Natsu!" Erza scolded him. Their eyes quickly widened as they began to see blue lightning gather around the griffin's wings. It suddenly jumped up in the air and came crashing back down, releasing the lightning in a large shock wave. The creature's lightning cackled through the air as it struck randomly everywhere. Erza quickly changed into her** Lightning Empress Armor **and thrusted her large spear into the ground in front of her as a magic seal appeared and created small barrier around her body. Natsu on the other hand tried his best to dodge the random bolts of lightning, which resulted in him being electrocuted several times before jumping behind Erza. "See why I said not to provoke it, you idiot?!" the scarlet knight yelled angrily.

"Can we please talk about this later?" Natsu shot back as the large bird prepared another attack. This time it rushed towards its opponents and slammed its body into Erza's barrier, which managed to push the creature back. As the griffin backed away, Erza pulled her spear out the ground and shot a stream of lightning at the winged beast's head. The attack hit its mark, but seemed to do nothing as the creature stood unaffected. "Oh yeah! Igneel said that these creatures are immune to lightning!" Natsu said as he scratched his head sheepishly.

"NOW YOU TELL ME THIS!" the scarlet knight thundered, smacking the dragon slayer upside the head. "That kind of information is something that you say at the beginning of a battle!"

"The hell was that for Erza?!" Natsu shot back. "This is why all the guys are scared of you." he crossed his arms, making Erza's eye twitch.

"Why you.."

The griffin stared at the two Fairy Tail wizards as they began to argue, caught between simply watching the two humans fight or attacking them. It raised its right claw and scratched it chin. "As amusing it is to watch the two of you argue, don't you think you have more important things to deal with?" the griffin spoke.

Natsu and Erza both glared at the now speaking creature. "**STAY OUT OF THI-wait, you can talk?**" they both said with wide eyes.

The griffin sighed as the did its version of a face palm. "Yes, I can, now can we plea-"

"Can you write too?"

"Can you sing?"

"Do you know how to read?"

"OOH! Do you know how to dance?"

Irritation began to settle as the winged beast continued to get bombarded with meaningless questions. It let out a loud screech as it finally became fed up with the two humans. "SHUT UP!" it roared as it lunged at the wizards, slashing its claws that were now clad in lightning.

"**Fire Dragon's Roar!**" Natsu bellowed as he shot a blast of fire at the griffin. The creature jumped backwards and flapped its wings rapidly, the gale force winds creating a wall that stopped in the incoming attack. It noticed Erza glowing into a bright light. Deciding to attack her next, it flapped its wing twice, sending a pressure of wind that took shape of a blade, threatening to cut down those in its path.

"**Trinity Sword!**" Crossing her swords in a delta formation, Erza slashed the air, sending two bright energy cuts to intercept the Griffin's attack. The attacks collided, cancelling each other out. However, Erza was unprepared for the winged beast to use its attack as a distraction, quickly swooping in and grabbing the scarlet mage with its massive claw. It redirected its lightning to its claw, shocking Erza as she screamed out in pain.

"Not on my watch, buddy!" Natsu quickly jumped up to attack, but was easily swatted away by one of the creature's wings. It turned its attention back to its captive, only to screech in pain as Erza summoned several swords that pierced the griffin's chest. Throwing the mage aside, it quickly began to pull the blades out. This ultimately served as its downfall, as the creature was too distracted to notice the pink haired human that had jumped up above it. "**Crimson Lotus: Scarlet Blade Slash!**" A massive flaming sword in hand, Natsu quickly put all of his strength into the attack as he raised the sword and brought it down in a vertical slash with tremendous force, cutting the griffin in two and incinerating it.

There was a moment of silence, followed by a loud growl. "PESTS!" the leader screamed.

"Oi, give up already, we came here to look for someone, not deal with punks like you guys." Natsu retorted, eager to finish them off and resume his original objective.

Erza sighed and crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Surrender now, it's pointless to resist at this point."

"ENOUGH, I WON'T REST UNTIL THE TWO OF YOU ARE BOTH LAID OUT ON THE GROUND DEAD!"

A onimous wind picked up and soon the two Fairy Tail wizards found themselves surrounded by thousands of creatures yet again, who appeared even more ferocious than the previous ones.

"It's always the hard way, huh?" Natsu grinned.

"It seems so.." Erza raised her swords, ready to finish this.

Before anyone could move a muscle, a loud 'TWACK' echoed loudly throughout the forest, followed by a loud crash. The thick fog finally lifted, revealing thirteen dark guild members, who all wore the same clothing; green robes and sandals. They were all bald, except for their leader who had green, spiky hair. Everyone blinked, including the creatures, wondering what the hell just happened.

"Um, Fernando-sama..what just happened?" one of the grunts spoke to the green haired man.

"Idiot! Now they know my name!" Fernando scolded his subordinate. "What happened to Thanos?" he quickly demanded.

All eyes fell on one of their fallen comrades who was laying inside a small crater, unconscious. Erza quickly deduced that he was the one responsible for the thick mist that not only hindered their sight but also may have blocked Natsu's sense of smell. _'I'm not really sure why or how, but at least now we can focus on taking these casters out.' _she thought. "Natsu!"

"Got it!" the pink haired mage grinned as the two Fairy Tail wizards jumped up towards their opponents. Natsu quickly found that the dark guild wizards weren't much for physical combat, as he easily knocked out six of them in a row without resorting to his flames. Erza took out the other six with ease, before Fernando found himself facing against both the Dragon and the Knight. Frantically, the green haired man began to draw something on his easel, but unfortunately was unable to finish his drawing when it caught fire, courtesy of Natsu. It was the last thing he saw before his face met with both Titania's and Salamander's fist. "Finally! I thought it was never going to end." Natsu sighed with relief while Erza walked over to the unconscious body of the man known as Thanos. As she knelt down to inspect him, the knight noticed he had a large swollen bump on his head.

"Looks like somebody knocked him out cold." the scarlet mage announced, tilting her head slightly. "The question is, who?"

"Well, maybe we can thank whoever it was later and get back to our.." Natsu's voice trailed off as he picked up on an unknown scent. "Someone's coming this way!"

_'Another enemy?'_ Erza thought as she stood up straight. Soon enough, they could hear a voice calling out to someone, a very soft and feminine voice.

"Alexi!" the voice said loudly. Natsu and Erza looked at each other before going in the direction of the voice. "Alexi, where are you?"

The two wizards made their way through some bushes before coming face to face with a black Exceed who was floating in the air. She had green eyes and wore a green dress with yellow flowers patterned all over it. Her body was black with a white belly and white paws, and she had several white spots on her face. The tip of her tail was also white. "Alexi!" the Exceed called out once again, but then froze when she saw two humans who were now standing few feet away from her. The two wizards blinked a few times before deciding to greet the black cat.

"Yo." Natsu said with a grin.

Erza gave a small smile. "Hello."

The black Exceed replied by falling down to the ground and rolling up into a ball with her arms over her head. "P-please d-don't hurt me!" she cried as her body began to shake violently. Erza and Natsu were both dumbfounded as they stared with large eyes at the Exceed before their eyes became relaxed. It didn't take a genius to realize that the black cat was afraid of humans.

Erza walked over and knelt down, gently placing her hand on the black Exceed's head, petting her. "There, there, we won't hurt you little one." the scarlet knight said soothingly.

"Yea, we're sorry if we frightened ya." Natsu said in a soft tone.

The black Exceed reluctantly stopped shaking and slowly moved her arms away from her face as she looked up at the two Fairy Tail Wizards, who both gave her smiles. Her body became slightly more relaxed, though still a little tense. Eventually the black Exceed stood up on her two feet, staring up at the two humans with curious yet cautious eyes.

"I'm Erza, and this is Natsu. What's your name?" the scarlet mage asked thoughtfully.

"S-Sonia." the black cat replied.

Erza smiled. "That's a very fitting name for a pretty Exceed like yourself." she commented, making Sonia blush slightly.

"T-thank you.." the black Exceed said, looking down at the ground shyly.

"So what are you doing wandering around in this forest?" Natsu asked curiously.

Sonia looked back up at the dragon slayer. "I-I'm looking for my friend Alexi. Have you seen him?" she asked. "He was playing with me at our village when he suddenly ran off without saying anything."

"What does he look like? Is he an Exceed like you?" Erza replied with her own question.

The black Exceed shook her head. "No, he's a human." Sonia answered, which surprised Erza because of how the feline had just react to seeing her and Natsu. "He has grey hair, piercing blue eyes and light skin. Alexi also wears a black long-sleeved coat and black pants like yours.." she pointed at Natsu.

The two wizards' eyes grew large as they glanced at each other.

"That sounds like the guy we're looking for." Natsu said, crossing his arms.

"You're both looking for him?" Sonia questioned, tilting her head slightly.

"Yes." the red-head began. "He saved our lives a few days ago, so we've been looking for him to thank him for saving us and to ask something of him."

The black Exceed spread her wings and floated up till she was eye level with both Erza and Natsu. "W-well, I can take you back to my village, Alexi has been living with us for the last two days now. Maybe he went back home."

"Us?" the pink haired mage asked.

"I live with a large number of Exceeds." Sonia explained. "They formed a village in the Northern part of this forest about seven years ago, I don't know much of the details since I joined them only a year ago, but apparently they came from another world called Edolas."

Natsu gave a huge grin. "So that's where Queen Shagotte and the other Exceeds settled down at!"

"It would seem so." Erza smiled slightly.

Sonia stared at the two humans in confusion. "You know Shagotte?" she asked, a little surprised that they referred to her village leader as 'Queen.'

"It's a long story..we can tell you all about it on the way to your village if you'd like." Erza smiled.

The black Exceed smiled for the first time and nodded. "Okay." she said as she lead the way, the two wizards following close behind.

_'It will be nice to see all the Exceed from Edolas again, it seems they've been doing very well for the past seven years. Happy, Carla and Lily will be happy to know what Shagotte and the others have been up to. As for our mission, if this Alexi person is the one we're looking for, then hopefully we can convince him to come back to the guild without having to resort to physical force. I hope so anyways..' _Erza thought as the trio made their way through the forest.

* * *

**Author: -Sighs- You know, for some reason I was very picky about this chapter, when I proof read the first version when it was done, I ended up revising it three times until I decided to just settle with this before my mind would tell me to change it..again.**

**Erza: You need to have more spirit!**

**Author: Well, it's not that I didn't like typing this chapter, it was just that I couldn't decide what I wanted to tell. How about you do the next chapter then, hm?**

**Erza: Very well, I accept your challenge!**

**Wendy: -Sweat drops- Erza is always very competitive..**

**Author: -Scratches head- You're telling me.**

**Natsu: Oi, are you going to let me do a chapter?**

**Author: I'll think about it. -Coughs- As if -Coughs-**

**Natsu: What was that?**

**Author: -Grins- Nothing. As always readers, let me know your thoughts on this chapter and the story so far. I hope everyone has a good week. -Smiles-**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Sonia and Alexi

(**NOTE:** Just to clarify, there is a_** slight** _revision in this chapter. After I posted this chapter a few days ago, I realized that Alexi's explanation of his magic..made no sense. I would have thought over it, but I ended up posting it anyways due to not having a lot of time on my hands. Now that I've read over it a few times in the past two days, it just started to bug the hell out of me. So after some brain storming, I ended up with something better. So hopefully when you read about Alexi's magic this time around, **it will actually make sense**. Thank you and sorry for any confusion I may have caused.)

**Author: Man, I can't believe its been a month since I updated a chapter..a brief apology to those who have been waiting patiently, life decided to slap me in the face yet again. I even put my other story on hold in the mean time so I can focus on this for a while.**

**Gajeel: Gehee, sounds like being an author blows big time.**

**Author: Not really, it's just that sometimes our lives get to hectic to be able to do work on our stories sometimes.**

**Gajeel: Whatever. Got anymore silverware? -Munches on some spoons-**

**Author: -Sweat drops- Heartless bastard..anyways, hope you all enjoy this next chapter. You mind, Gajeel?**

**Gajeel: Eh, Fairy Tail and its characters are owned by Hiro Mashima. That good enough?**

**Author: Yep, muchas gracias.**

**Gajeel: You sneeze or something?**

**Author: -Face palms-**

* * *

**Crocus Woodlands, Exceed Village**

The walk back to Sonia's village was relatively uneventful, which mostly consisted of Erza and Natsu explaining how they traveled to Edolas seven years ago. The black Exceed listened attentively with awe and curiosity, occasionally asking a question or two here and there. Anima, Edolas' Fairy Tail counterparts, King Faust, the Exceed, Queen Shagotte and the Droma Anim. For Sonia it was like listening to a bedtime story, only that it was an actual even that had taken place years ago. The Exceed had known that a majority of the villagers claimed they were from another world, but now hearing it from the perspective of two humans who had travelled there to save their friends made her realize that they were actually telling the truth.

_'Incredible..so Edolas really is my homeland..'_ Sonia thought.

As they neared their destination, the two Fairy Tail wizards began to hear voices of different people talking, children playing and so on. Once they passed into a clearing, the village came into complete view; small houses were everywhere, simple dirt roads adorned the streets and there was a large arae in the middle that appeared to be the village square. The Exceeds themselves were going about their daily business, the young children were playing while a few of them were sitting down at a table being lectured about various wild life. The adults on the other hand were hard at work; a group of Exceed were dragging along a huge net that held a great deal of fish, no doubt having just returned from a fishing trip. The others were busy tending to everyday things ranging from running their shops to repairing damaged homes and so on. Natsu and Erza then noticed a very large garden next in the center of the entire village that had quite a variety of vegetables and fruits growing. It came to no surprise when the entire village stopped what they were doing and stared at the two visitors. Some were uneasy at first, but when some of them finally recognized the pink haired boy and the scarlet haired girl, they quickly gathered around them like they were celebrities, asking questions left and right.

Natsu couldn't help but grin. "Yo, looks like you guys are taking good care of yourselves."

"Ah, he's one of the wizards who defeated King Faust and the Droma Anim!" an Exceed shouted out.

"It's really him!"

"Awesome!"

"My, this is a pleasant surprise." a feminine voice spoke that made all the villagers quiet down. "It has been a while, Natsu, Erza."

Everyone, including the two wizards, turned to see the former queen of the Exceeds, Shagotte, making her way towards the small gathering. Compared to her previous appearance, she was slightly taller, wearing a blue blouse with a pair of grey pants and holding a hoe in her hand. She also seemed to be sweating, no doubt working along with her fellow Exceed to keep the village in tip-top shape. This was further confirmed by the group of adult Exceed who followed close, one of them being Lucky, Happy's estranged father. His wife, Marl, floated down next to him holding a small basket full of produce.

"Kah!" he said loudly. "Good to see you youngsters are still around and kick'n!"

Marl gave Natsu and Erza a warm smile. "It's good to see that you are both alright. We've heard what happened to you all on that island, it's a miracle that you are all unharmed. Tell me, how are Happy and Carla doing?"

"They're both doing great!" Natsu said with a grin.

Erza nodded her head. "They are getting along pretty well, especially with Panther Lily. I'm sure the three of them will be happy to know you are all doing fine."

At this comment, Lucky suddenly interjected. "Kah! That greenhorn still ain't come by to visit!" he yelled angrily. Though his eyes wouldn't show it, Lucky missed seeing his son.

"Now dear.." Marl tried to calm him down, though deep down she too felt the same.

Shagotte shifted uncomfortably. She also felt the same as Lucky, seven years without seeing her child's face or hearing her voice really took a lot out of the former queen. _'It's only natural for a parent to worry about their child.'_

Natsu seemed to pick up on this and decided to ease their worries. "Well, I guess we'll just have to bring Happy and Carla along with us the next time we come visit." he said.

The three Exceeds' eyes lit up as Erza nodded at them again. "They'll come visit, even if we have to force them to." she said, while Natsu and the others sweat dropped.

"Thank you, I think.." Shagotte replied. "So, what brings you two to our little village?"

Sonia decided to speak up for the first time since they're arrival. "I brought them here." she began. "I was in the outer forest looking for Alexi after he ran off without warning. Natsu and Erza came across me when I was still searching, and when I described him, they both said they were looking for someone of the same description, so I decided to bring them here so they could speak with him. Has he come back by any chance?"

"Hm.." Shagotte thought for a moment. "I think I saw him going near the lake behind the village."

"Do any of you know where he came from?" Erza asked, getting the other's attention.

Marl shook her head. "No, he never said where he was from. A few of us had asked him, but he said he didn't remember."

"I see.." the scarlet mage replied, crossing her arms.

"KAAAAH!" Lucky yelled, startling everyone. "Don't really care where that young whippersnapper came from, all I know if Alexi hadn't shown up when our village was attacked, we'd all be kissing dirt or in a cage in who knows where!"

"Now dear.." his wife said with a soft smile.

Natsu turned to the former queen. "Your village was attacked?" he questioned.

"Yes.." Shaggotte grimaced. "Two days ago, a group of human wizards tried to attacked our village. Apparently, they were going to capture us and sell us off as slaves and pets. They threatened to kill some of the Exceed if we failed to comply. Just when we thought it was hopeless, a grey haired human appeared and drove them off, suprising all of us when he did so without the use of magic. We invited him to stay here afterwards to repay him, as he said he had no place to call his own, and he's even helped rebuild the homes that were damaged during the attack." she finished explaining. All the Exceed remained quiet for a few moments, seemingly out of respect for this Alexi.

"Well, I believe it's time we went to go speak with him." Erza spoke. "There's something very important that needs to discuss."

The pink haired mage put his hands behind his head. "Let's get it over with then."

Sonia, who had remained silent for the most part, glanced up at the two Fairy Tail wizards. "I'll escort you two." the black Exceed said aloud as she spread her wings and floated towards the lake, Natsu and Erza following close behind. Shagotte watched as the trio began to disappear from view with a smile.

"First Alexi, now Natsu and Erza. She seems to be slowly getting over her fear of humans." the former queen said to no one in particular.

"It seems so.." Marl added. "From what had happened to her, its only natural that Sonia fears them. It seems now, however, that she's beginning to face her fear and overcome it." she finished with a smile.

Back with Erza, Natsu and Sonia, the trio wear slowly nearing the lake. A familiar scent told the black Exceed that they were getting close as Natsu caught whiff of the scent himself. Erza simply sported her usual stoic expression. _'Our first priority is to identify whether this person is the same one I saw at the Marza mountain range two days ago before I blacked out.' _the knight thought to herself. _'If this Alexi is that same person, then I can ask my questions.'_

"Sonia." Natsu said abruptly, catching the black Exceed's attention and pulling Erza from he rthoughts. "Something's been bugging the hell out of me for a while now. When you freaked out when you first saw us in the forest..was it cause you're afraid of humans?" he questioned.

The black cat was quiet for a moment, then found her voice. "Y-yes, I apologize about that. After a certain..incident when I was growing up.." Sonia cringed for a moment. "..I grew fearful of humans."

"Then how is it that you became friends with Alexi, a human?" Erza asked curiously.

"To be honest, I was afraid of Alexi at first as well." Sonia replied. "Even though he saved the village, I was still scared of him. Of course, Shagotte insisted that everyone thank him so I did, or at least tried. But when I tried to speak, I was gripped with so much fear that nothing came out of my mouth. I felt bad because I thought I hurt his feelings, but instead he smiled and me and said 'You're welcome.' I thought he was acting a little suspicious."

The scarlet mage crossed her arms. "What happened afterwards?"

"Well, I kinda, uh.." the black Exceed blushed with embarrassment. "I kinda followed him around when he wasn't looking during his first day here, though I found out later that he already knew I was. Anyways, I ended up following him to the lake later that day and I saw him sitting near the shore. But what really got my attention was the look on his face..he looked so..lost."

"Sounds like someone I used to know." Natsu said softly while Erza nodded. Though the Exceed never knew it, the two wizards were referring to themselves; they were no strangers to loneliness or isolation.

"Anyways, one thing happened after another, and before I knew it, I ended up being friends with Alexi. Its strange, I never imagined I would be friends with a human again after such a long time." Sonia said quietly. The Exceed felt a hand pat her head gently.

"Some people have that kind of effect, you know? Just being around can make you do or say things without you even realizing it." Natsu said with a big grin. Sonia found herself smiling as she looked up to the pink haired mage. Erza watched the two from a close distance, though her eyes were more focused on Natsu.

_'You have no idea how right you are, Natsu..you're the same after all, everyone who's been around had changed..including me..' _the scarlet mage thought with a faint smile on her face. Her thoughts quickly ended when a loud explosion boomed in the distance.

"The hell was that?" Natsu asked. As if to answer his question, a loud howl filled the air, nearly blowing out his ear drums. "I guess that answered my question!" he screamed as he covered his ears.

Another ear-splitting howl was heard, as Erza and Sonia tried desperately to shield their ears from the horrific noise. The sound finally stopped, but in turn another loud explosion rumbled dangerously nearby. Something was wreaking havoc, and the scarlet mage didn't like it one bit. "We need to find whatever's causing this noise!" she yelled as she quickly ran ahead, followed by Natsu and Sonia. "Where's the lake?" Erza asked as Sonia caught up with her.

"Right over that hill!" the Exceed pointed up ahead.

No sooner had they reached the top of the hill, did they see the source of the howls; a large, black serpentine creature thrashing about in the lake shore. It raised its tail and smashed it into some nearby rocks, spraying chunks of debris everywhere. At first, the wizards thought it was going on a mindless rampage, but they would soon find out that wasn't the case.

"Impudent pest!" the serpent roared. "How dare you trespass on my territory!"

That's when the trio noticed someone standing on top of the creature's tail. A pair of piercing blue eyes glared back at the creature in defiance. Grey, slicked back hair shifted in the wind as the person stood there with his arms crossed. A black coat with blue trimmings adorned his upper body, while he wore an azure sash around his waist, and black pants with white shoes on his lower body. Sonia gasped. "That's Alexi!"

Erza's eyes widened when she recognized the person's hair style. _'He's the same one from the mountain!'_

"I've never seen you before, and as far as I'm concerned, this lake belongs to no one, it is free to all living creatures!" the young man known as Alexi countered back.

The serpent let out a huff. "It matters not, human, from this day forth this lake is my home, and those who would dare near it without my permission will suffer my wrath!" it thundered as it pulled its tail out from under the grey haired boy. It then lunged directly at the small human, the serpent's mouth wide open threatening to swallow him whole.

"What a pain.." Alexi sighed as he stood his ground. The others on the hill watched as the grey haired boy cocked his right fist back, a Magic Seal appearing in front of his knuckles. The seal was white and had a blue outline, with the image of a white horned dragon in the center.

"That's Dragon Slayer Magic!" Natsu quickly pointed out from atop the hill.

"**Nova Dragon's Meteor Fist!**" the grey haired mage roared as a torrent of white energy, surrounded by blue electricity, formed around his fist. The serpent, well within range, thought its victory was all but assured, that was until its face met with a the human's fist. The force of the mage's punch alone was enough to stop the creature dead in its tracks, but then the shockwave of energy that followed right after sent it sailing through the air and back into the lake. Satisfied with his work, the young man focused his attention to his small band of spectators, who believed themselves to be well hidden from view. "You three can come out now!" he shouted with a slight smirk on his face.

The two Fairy Tail wizards stiffened, realizing that the mage was aware of their presence during the entire fight, possibly even before then. Sonia was the first to quickly fly down the hill, with Natsu and Erza following suit. Within moments, the trio stood at the center of what was just a battlefield moments earlier, broken rocks and debris scattered everywhere. "Alexi!" the Exceed cried as she flung herself at Alexi's face.

The grey haired mage muffled a few words before Sonia decided to pry herself off. "Missed me?" he asked cooly with a smile.

"S-shut up." the Exceed replied playfully with a faint smile.

Alexi's smile widened before he turned his attention to the red-head and pinkette. "So, we finally meet." he said calmly.

"It sounds as if you were expecting us." Erza spoke.

"Well, I did sense the two of you enter the forest earlier, so I figured it was just a matter of time before you guys found me." the grey haired mage explained.

Natsu tilted his head. "You did?"

Alexi nodded. "I felt two very high magic signatures enter the forest earlier, it was pretty hard not to notice. That and the explosions you two made were hard to miss."

"Yup, explosions and destruction are the qualities of a Fairy Tail mage!" the pink haired boy said proudly.

The grey haired mage sweat dropped. "You don't say.."

"We're getting a little off track here. I believe introductions are in order." the red-head called for everyone's attention. "I am Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail."

"Natsu Dragneel, also of Fairy Tail." the pinkette said as he placed his hands behind his head.

The grey haired mage smiled faintly. "Alexi Bluemoon."

_'Bluemoon, like the color of his eyes.'_ Erza thought. "Well then Alexi, I hope you don't mind answering a few questions I have." she said as she crossed her arms. "Two days ago, a mysterious person saved my team and I from being crushed under a mountain of dirt and rocks after all of us lost consciousness. He later gave his name as White Fang to a group of friends who were waiting outside for us. Was that person you?"

Alexi closed his eyes and nodded. "Yes, that was me."

"Why were you there?" the red-head questioned. "Why did you help us?"

"Because." the grey haired mage began. "I was there long before you arrived." Alexi saw the questionable look he received from Erza and sighed. "I'll just cut to the chase. You and your friends found a lacrima in that cave, right?" The two wizards nodded, confirming this. "Incase you were wondering, that lacrima was me. Now as for your other question, would any sane person leave a group of unconscious people to be buried under a mountain of dirt and rocks?"

Erza's head shot up. "So you were transformed into a lacrima?" she asked, the grey haired boy nodding in response.

"Sounds like Edolas all over again.." Natsu mumbled.

"Edolas?" Alexi raised an eyebrow.

The pink haired mage shrugged. "Long story."

Erza remained silent as she studied Alexi. _'So then when Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy overloaded the lacrima with their magic, it lost its form and Alexi was reverted back to his original body.' _she thought to herself. Alexi noticed the hard stare he was receiving from the scarlet woman, but decided to say nothing of it.

"How did you end up as a lacrima anyways?" the pinkette voiced his question.

The grey haired boy turned back to Natsu. "A dark mage cast a spell on me. For what and why, I honestly can't remember, nor do I remember the mage's name or how they looked like. It seems turning into a lacrima and reverting back messed with my memory. When I finally came to and realize what was going on, I couldn't remember anything, not even my name. Thankfully, I managed to remember my magic and how to use it, so I was able to get you and your friends outside at the last second. When your Exceed friends outside asked me who I was, the only name I could recall was White Fang, so I decided to give that as my name until I could remember my real one. After helping you guys out, I wandered around for a bit until I ran into Sonia's village being attacked by some people. Naturally, I intervened." he paused, then continued. "After that mess was sorted out, my memories started slowly coming back, but there's a lot that feels fuzzy to me."

_'I guess until all his memories return, we'll only end up with more questions than answers.'_ Erza thought. _''Perhaps Porlyusica could help, she may know some kind of medicine that could restore a person's memories.' _she contemplated. As the red-head went over their options, and after a few moments of silence, Natsu decided to ask the question that was burning in the back of his head.

"So you're a Dragon Slayer, huh?"

Alexi turned to Natsu with a questioning look on his face. "You know about Dragon Slayer Magic?" he replied with his own question.

Natsu simply grinned. "More than that, actually. I'm one myself."

Alexi was more than a little surprised. "Huh. Never really thought I'd meet another dragon slayer, the thought never crossed my mind."

"Heh!" the pinkette smiled. "There are actually two more Dragon Slayers back in our guild. Well, there's Laxus too, but he's not a true Dragon Slayer."

"I see.." the grey haired said with a thinking pose as he sat down cross-legged, followed by Natsu and Sonia who did the same. "So what kind of Dragon Slayer Magic do you use?" he asked.

"Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. Igneel, the Fire Dragon, taught it to me. He also took care of me and raised me." Natsu replied.

The grey haired boy crossed his arms. "Igneel, huh.."

"What about you?"

"I use Nova Dragon Slayer Magic."

Natsu tilted his head, thinking. "Nova? Isn't that like explosions or something?"

"You were close." Alexi raised his right hand and allowed his magic to swirl around it. Natsu stared as the white energy seemed to clash around the grey haired mage's hand, it reminded him of magic in its pure form that he had seen when Edolas's magic was being sucked into the reversed Anima. "A nova is essentially a more powerful version of an explosion, and the energy it produces is tremendous. Think of a star exploding and then you'll get what I'm saying."

"It looks so pretty.." Sonia said as she became entranced by the flow of energy.

The pinkette squinted his eyes a bit. "I never heard of explosions as an element, let alone a nova or whatever it's called. How do you eat it?"

The grey haired dragon slayer chuckled. "Well, that's a little tricky. When a nova or explosion happens, I'm able to eat the energy they produce when they explode." The swirl of energy quickly formed into a white orb that had blue electricity surrounding it. "Thankfully, I have a resistance to explosions of any kind, though I can still get hurt if it's more than I can handle."

Natsu nodded, he himself used to think he was immune to all forms of fire, until meeting Grimoire Heart's Zancrow, the God Slayer. After that he became slightly more cautious when facing Fire Mage's.

"Hm.." Alexi contemplated something for a bit, before smiling slightly. He decided to give them a demonstration of his magic. With one fluid motion, Alexi threw the orb in hand high in the air, until it was well over sixty feet high. "How good is your aim?" he asked with a slight smirk as he turned to the other dragon slayer.

The pink haired mage replied with a smirk of his own. "Watch and learn." he said, preparing a fireball in his right hand.

Alexi turned to Sonia. "You might want to cover your ears." he suggested.

The Exceed nodded and placed her paws over her ears, then watched as Natsu tossed a small fireball up at the white orb in the air. As soon as the fireball made contact, the white orb erupted in a flash of white light along with an ear shattering boom that scared all nearby life half to death.

Erza at the time was having some very pleasant thoughts about strawberry cake and Natsu, when the noise suddenly interrupted her own thoughts. The red-head turned around slowly with eyes ready to kill. "Who **_dares_** to interrupt me while I'm having such pleasant thoughts!" she demanded with rage in her voice.

The two dragon slayers and the black Exceed suddenly felt very small before the presence of the enraged Titania. Natsu swallowed his fear and decided to be brave for a change. "W-w-well, y-you s-s-" was all the pink haired mage could get out before Erza suddenly materialized in front of him and sent him flying into the a tree with a well placed kick, shocking Sonia and angering Alexi.

"What the hell was that for?" Alexi yelled angrily. "What kind of idiot attacks their own friends?!"

Erza's eye twitched. "What did you just call me?" the knight said dangerously as her eyes began glowing red and a black aura formed around her. "Would you care to repeat that?"

Sonia tried her best to defuse the situation. "N-now, now, this is all just a big misunderstanding.." she said, trying to calm the red-head down. Unfortunately, the Exceed's words fell on deaf ears.

Alexi stared back at Titania defiantly, but remained silent.

"Fine, if you have nothing else to say, then accept your punishment like a man!" the scarlet mage yelled as she cocked back her fist, ready to dispense her own brand of 'justice' upon the mage. Before she could get close enough, however, Alexi suddenly appeared right in front of Erza, catching her completely off guard.

"I think you should take a nap." the dragon slayer sighed as he took his right hand and poked Titania on her forehead with his index finger. The mage's eyes widened with shock as she felt her entire body suddenly relax before she slowly lost consciousness. Her body went limp and began to fall, but was quickly caught by Alexi who gently laid her down on the ground. "She's gonna be pissed when she wakes up.." he mumbled.

The black Exceed quickly flew to Alexi's side. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing harmful." the grey haired boy assured her as he sat down next to Erza's sleeping body. "It was a little trick my father taught me, he used it on me a lot when I was younger. I was quite an unruly child back then." he chuckled.

"ERZA!" the two companions heard as Natsu ran over to Titania's fallen figure. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" the pinkette roared.

Alexi put his hands up defensively. "Calm down Natsu! I didn't hurt her or anything, she's just sleeping." He watched as Natsu's face visibly relaxed. "She looked like she could use a nap anyways."

The pink haired dragon slayer shrugged. "You know, you could have done that right before she kicked me." he pouted as he took a seat next to the other dragon slayer.

"Wait, you're not mad at her?" the grey haired mage questioned.

"Nope." Natsu replied cheerfully. "That's just how Erza is sometimes, a little scary, but she's a very strong and passionate person. She's brave, courageous, reliable, loyal.." the pinkette went on for five minutes listing various other qualities that described Erza.

After Natsu finished his list, Alexi quirked an eyebrow. "Hm..the way you reacted when you thought I did something bad to her and how highly you speak of her..is Erza, by any chance, your mate?"

Natsu's face turned as red as Titania's hair. "M-M-MATE?!" he sputtered loudly.

Alexi blinked for a second before grinning slyly. "Is that a yes?" he teased as Sonia giggled.

"N-no, it's not like that between me and her! We're just friends!" the pinkette blurted out. "And what the hell do you mean by mate?" Natsu spoke more calmly this time.

"Igneel didn't teach you about dragon mating?"

"Well, he probably did, but I probably didn't pay much attention.." Natsu admitted sheepishly.

"Man, you really are hopeless.." Alexi sighed. "I'm surprised Igneel had that much patience with you. My father had very little patience for any interruptions I caused."

The pink haired mage suddenly perked up. "Oh yea, I forgot to ask you. Who was your dragon?"

Alexi smiled faintly. "Neosys, the Nova Dragon." he said sadly.

"Did he disappear on July 7th, 777?" Natsu inquired.

This time the smile faded. "I'm not sure.." the other dragon slayer replied with a puzzled expression. "I can't..remember."

The three of them each remained silent, before a voice broke their thoughts. "Then we're going to have to do something about your memory loss then." They all looked to see Erza waking up from her 'nap', rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Erza, you're awake!" Natsu said happily, making the scarlet mage blush. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Y-y-yes.." she stuttered, turning away to hide her blush. "How long was I out?"

"About ten minutes." Alexi answered nonchalantly. After her blush died down, Erza turned to face the grey haired mage, making him tense up.

The scarlet mage smiled slightly. "Don't worry, I won't punish you..for now anyways." Erza finished with an evil glint in her eyes, making everyone shudder.

_'Great, I think I just made things worse between us..'_ Alexi sighed inwardly.

"However..that little trick you used on me might be useful for something."

The grey haired mage raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The scarlet haired mage closed her eyes. "As embarrassing as it is to admit, I've been having a hard time falling asleep on my mattress lately, it's actually very uncomfortable. But after you put me to sleep, I slept very peacefully despite sleeping on the ground, and I woke up feeling very refreshed. That was probably the best nap I have ever had."

Alexi folded his arms over his chest, already knowing where the red-head was going with this. "No way. I'm not becoming your solution to your night-time problems." he said, turning away slightly.

"Very well then.." Erza opened her eyes and gave the mage a demonic look. "**Then I will hunt you down to the ends of Earthland and fill your life with misery and suffering for having beaten me in such a humiliating manner**." she said coldly.

The mage was now sweating nervously. "Fine!" he shot back. _'Sheesh, that woman sure holds a grudge..'_

The red-head changed back to her usual stoic expression. "Think of it as my way of forgiving you."

"Sounds more like a punishment to me.." Alexi muttered to no one in particular.

"Anyways.." Erza coughed, getting everyone's attention. "Before we veer off topic again..we have something to ask of you, Alexi."

The grey haired dragon slayer furrowed his brow. "What would that be?"

The scarlet knight stood up and dusted herself off. "To come back to the guild, Fairy Tail, with us. Our Master has requested to speak with you, there is a problem we are dealing with at the moment and we are lacking a great deal of information, but he believes you may know something we don't." Erza went on to explain the events that took place two days ago, and how a man named Kornell and a guild called Serpent Fang were attempting to use Alexi's, Natsus's, Wendy's and Gajeel's dragon slayer magic for an unknown ceremony. When she finished, Erza waited expectantly as Alexi took in all the information.

"A ceremony.." the grey haired mage murmured. Alexi closed his eyes and began thinking back to when he was turned into a lacrima. He could faintly remember the person who did it, but the person's face and name kept escaping him. He tried to at least remember the last thing that person said before everything went dark. The two Fairy Tail wizards and Sonia watched the young mage deep in thought. Alexi became very still, almost as if he were a statue as he concentrated, but just as he would come close to remembering, it would all slip away. After a few more minutes, he gave up. "Damn, it's still all too fuzzy.."

Erza smiled. "Another reason you should come to the guild with us." she added, as Alexi looked at her curiously. "There is a mage who lives near Fairy Tail, Porlyrusica. She specializes in healing potions and medicines, I believe she may be able to restore all of your memories. We've also heard that you currently have no place to stay, is that right?" she asked.

The grey haired mage nodded. "I was considering going to the nearest city and finding some way of earning money."

"Then you should join Fairy Tail." Natsu spoke this time. "If you become a member, then you'll be able to take on job requests that offer money as a reward. The more jobs you take on and complete, the more money you can earn, and in no time you'll be able to find an apartment to rent or even buy a house. I'm sure Gramps wouldn't mind letting you join, hell, he could even have some kind of housing arrangement set up for you while you save up." the pink haired mage finished with a grin. "So what do ya say?"

Alexi thought about what Natsu and Erza offered, and he couldn't see anything wrong with it. After all, he needed to earn some money somehow or else he wouldn't be able to get very far, being in a foreign country after all. This was an opportunity to start fresh, one that Alexi couldn't pass up. He could regain his memories and hopefully remember everything that happened to him, particularly as to why a dark mage turned him into a lacrima in the first place. But even more important than all those things was finding any clues to the whereabouts of his father, Neosys. _'Perhaps the other two Dragon Slayers Natsu spoke of might know something.' _he pondered. Alexi sat up and dusted himself off as he looked up at the setting sun. It felt fitting, as the grey haired mage smiled. "Alright, you guys win."

The two Fairy Tail wizards looked at each other and smiled. It was then that a very saddened Sonia sighed. "I guess that means you won't be coming back.." the Exceed said sadly.

Crouching down to pet her head, Alexi spoke softly. "Sonia..." he said with a sad smile. Before he could say anything else, a thought popped into his head. "..Would you like to come with me?" he asked.

Sonia stared at the mage with bewildered eyes. "A-are you serious? You want me..to come with you?"

"Of course, you're my first friend I made in Fiore after all. I trust you." the grey haired mage said with chuckle. "Is that alright with you guys?" he asked, turning his head slightly towards Natsu and Erza.

"I don't see why not. She can even become a member of Fairy Tail if she would like." the scarlet mage replied with a stoic smile.

The pinkette grinned. "Then we'll have four dragon slayers and four Exceeds in our guild! I'm sure Happy, Carla and Lily will be stoked."

Alexi turned back to Sonia who was now smiling. "Well, there you have it. So what do you say, would you like to come with me?" he asked her again.

"O-of course!" the back Exceed replied with joy.

"Then its settled." the grey haired dragon slayer said with a grin. "From this day forward, you and I are partners."

Sonia smiled even wider. "You bet!" she said, sounding confident. "I won't let you down Alexi!"

"That's the spirit!" Natsu said as he threw his hands in the air. "Let's go back to Fairy Tail!" he added as he tried running off into the forest, only to be stopped by Erza who grabbed a hold of his scarf. "What the hell?!" he fumed angrily.

"Idiot, we can't leave without telling Shagotte about our departure. We need to inform them that Alexi and Sonia will be leaving to join Fairy Tail." the red-head said as she began walking towards the village, dragging a thrashing Natsu along by his scarf.

Alexi and Sonia sweat dropped but then looked at each other, laughing. Unknown to any of them at the time, they were being watched thousands of miles away by a certain dragon.

* * *

**?**

"So, the son of Neosys has returned.."

A low rumbling sigh echoed throughout the area, though no one was there to hear it, and with good reason; the insurmountable heat produced by free-flowing lava made it impossible for any living to creature to survive such a hellish place, let alone live here. That is, to all but one being. In this seemingly God forsaken place, a great dragon called this his home. With a mighty roar, the majestic yet fearsome being let his presence be known to those who would dare trespass in his territory. Into _**Igneel's**_ territory.

Flapping his bony wings, bright red scales shimmering in the wake of the lava's heat, the great Fire Dragon Igneel let loose a puff of smoke from his gaping maw. It had been fourteen years since he had left his adoptive son, Natsu Dragneel, to fend for himself, and not a day went by that the proud dragon regretted it. But alas, there are just some things that must be done, even if it meant leaving the closest thing to a family he had behind for the sake of saving the world. A parent could still worry, however, and Igneel was no exception. The dragon could still remember the warmth that child radiated, that power that he could see dwelling dormant within Natsu. His great maw curved into a smile.

"My, am I dreaming, or is the one and only Igneel smiling?"

Grunting, the great dragon turned his massive head towards a small, green transparent orb of light that gently floated in the air. A feminine chuckle come from the light as it approached Igneel.

"Grandine..I believe I made it clear that you are forbidden to come to this place!" The dragon said with a mighty roar that would send any other living creature running for dear life. The Sky Dragon Grandine, in light form, sighed at the fire dragon's impatience. Though Igneel could not see her physical form, he had no doubt that the female dragon was smiling behind that light.

"Pipe down, you old fool. " This time a different voice spoke, sounding male and metallic in tone. "Grandine never listens to me, what makes you think she'd listen to you?"

Igneel growled in with a hint of displeasure. "Metalicana.."

A silver transparent orb of light now floated adjacent next to the green one. "I see you still remember my name, you flaming behemoth." Metalicana sneered. "Of course, who could forget the name of the awesome and all powerful Metalicana!"

"Do not test my patience!" the fire dragon boomed in response. "Do you wish to be melted down into ore?"

"I'd like to see you try!" the iron dragon thundered back. "Just because your son defeated my brat doesn't mean the same will result with our fight!"

Grandine sighed as the two dragons bickered, issuing meaningless threats back and forth between one another. They were just like their respective sons, unable to settle anything without resorting to violence. The sky dragon wouldn't lie that she wasn't amused, however.

"Enough of your childish banter you two!" Grandine screeched. "We did not come here to bicker who the stronger dragon is.."

Igneel and Metalicana huffed, opting to remain silent. After what seemed like an eternity, the iron dragon finally spoke. "So then its true.."

"Yes." the sky dragon added. "The human that Neosys raised has suddenly appeared once again."

Igneel remained silent for a moment, deep in thought as the other two dragons went on speaking.

"So his brat still lives..I'm sure that old fossil will be happy." Metalicana snorted.

Grandine let out a sigh. "Why must you refer to Neosys with such a name? While it is true that he is one of the remaining ancient dragons, he is also the wisest and one of the most powerful among us all. I would suggest showing a little more respect towards our elder, Metalicana."

The iron dragon let out a grunt. He never liked being scolded or lectured by the sky dragon, even after several centuries he still couldn't find the patience to deal with her attitude. "You need to stop acting like my mother, Grandine. I'm no hatchling."

"Considering how you and your son turned out, I would say I am making up for what she neglected to teach you."

"Say that one more time, Sky Dragon.."

"ENOUGH!" Igneel bellowed as the two dragons ceased their bickering. "Is Neosys aware of this?" he asked, going back to the topic at hand.

Grandine sighed. "Most likely. There is no possible way that Neosys wouldn't sense his own son's magic signature, especially considering that child suddenly appeared in the human kingdom of Fiore, of all places."

"Wait, didn't the old fossil find that brat in the southern continent?" the iron dragon questioned. "How did that human end up all the way over there? Even more important now that I think about it, how did that brat survive for _**that**_ long?"

"It seemed the boy was turned into a lacrima by a unknown individual." Igneel revealed. "Effectively stopping him from aging. Afterwards, he was somehow transported to Fiore until he was reawakened a few days ago." he surmised from the knowledge he had attained earlier.

The sky dragon remained puzzled. "If what you say is true, then what did this individual hoped to achieve by doing that?"

"I am not sure, Dragon Slayer Magic has many uses, some which are still unknown to even us. This individual, or group of individuals, must have extensive knowledge about dragons and dragon slayers."

Metalicana let out a frustrated roar. "This is starting to annoy me! Its bad enough that we must deal with the Dragon King still loose in the world, but now this? Are we honestly worrying about something so miniscule?"

Igneel glared at the iron dragon. "Anything that involves using Dragon Magic and Dragon Slayer Magic for unknown purposes is considered dangerous. Humans are very naive and unpredictable, they often cross boundaries that are not meant to be crossed. We've all seen what the Black Wizard Zeref had done; he created thousands of demons and set them loose upon the world. What if humans used our magic for something similar?" he said, effectively silencing the iron dragon.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Grandine questioned. It wasn't like the sky dragon to be asking Igneel for suggestions, but they honestly had no idea what or who they were dealing with at the moment.

"We wait for now.." the fire dragon stated. "We shall keep an eye on this boy."

The other two dragons seemed to agree with this statement.

"Well, if that is all, then I shall take my leave." Grandine said. "Farewell for now you two, I shall go and speak with Neosys about this matter."

"Very well, Grandine." Igneel replied.

"This place was beginning to become unbearable anyways." Metalicana snorted. "The next we meet, Fire Dragon, we shall see who is the strongest between the two of us."

The red dragon smirked. "As you wish, Iron Dragon."

With that, the two lights flew off into the distance until they were out of sight, leaving Igneel to his own thoughts. _'Could it be that they know what secret that child holds?' _the mighty dragon questioned in thought. '_Is it just mere coincidence, or is it fate? I suppose the answer will come in time. It seems our children will have to face yet another trial before the battle against the Dragon King begins..' _After a few moments of silence, Igneel's thoughts moved to a more pleasant matter.

"Erza Scarlet..you have fallen for my son it would seem.." the great dragon chuckled before it shifted to full-blown laughter. "I wish you good luck child, I know how stubborn that boy is.."

* * *

**Next Day, Fairy Tail**

"Ah, it's so boring!" Lucy groaned as she laid her head on the bar counter.

The guild had been rather quiet with the absence of Salamander and Titania, and while it was enjoyable at first, it suddenly became uneventful and just plain..unnatural. Even Gray and Gajeel, who found the Fire Dragon Slayer unbearable almost always, found themselves wishing he would return just to start another guild fight. Mira found herself giggling at the blonde who slumped over the counter.

"It is too quiet without those two here. I'm sure they will be back soon enough to liven things up again."

"Aye!" Happy chirped as he flew by Lucy and took a seat on the counter. "I'm sure they're having fun wreaking havoc, where ever they are."

"That's a pretty grim way of thinking.." the blonde shuddered.

Mira giggle. "My, my, I wouldn't put it past them, those two do have a hard time holding back."

Lucy grimaced slightly. "I feel sorry for that guy they're supposed to bring back.."

"If the guy's lucky, they'll drag his unconscious body back to the guild." the blue Exceed said casually.

"You know, you can be pretty scary sometimes Happy." the Celestial mage stated, sitting straight up.

"Gehee!"

Upon hearing that unusual laugh, everyone turned to see Gajeel strolling over to the bar. "Oh, hey Gajeel." Lucy greeted.

"I bet that Erza drag's both the guy's and Salamander's sorry asses back to the guild." the Iron Dragon Slayer snorted.

Gray, who just happened to be sitting at a table nearby with Juvia, couldn't help but overhear that statement. "I wouldn't put it past her, that flaming idiot will probably screw up the mission by doing something stupid."

"Now, now you two, we all know that Natsu has grown up quite a bit." Mira said with a bright smile. "I think you're both just jealous that he got to go on a special mission."

"Bah, what's so special about looking for some guy?" Gajeel grunted.

Gray shook his head. "Did you forget already? That guy saved our sorry asses after those other bastards handed them to us, the least we can do is send someone out to say thank you."

Juvia, who had been admiring the ice mage from being in close proximity, decided to throw her two cents in. "Gray-sama is right! Juvia will personally thank the man who saved her beloved's life!" she said before turning to Gajeel. "You should, at the very least, be thankful as well Gajeel-kun."

The Iron Dragon Slayer snorted. "Like I needed saving, I could have gotten out of that mess on my own."

"Still, for the guy to save all of us from being crushed under a mountain, it really says something about his character." Lucy spoke up. "I have a feeling this person isn't your typical civilian or mage."

Everyone, even Gajeel, remained silent as they each turned to their own thoughts on their mysterious savior. Wendy was on the second floor with her partner, Carla, when she overheard the group talking down below, raising her own questions as well.

"I wonder how he's like.." the bluenette thought out loud as she stared down at her friends.

The white Exceed huffed. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you." In truth, Carla was actually very weary of meeting that man again, being the exact person she had seen in her vision, though he lacked the gauntlets, greaves and breastplate he had during her premonition. The feline couldn't help but worry; an unknown person usually brought unknown troubles with them, something she learned first hand with 'Mest' and 'Michelle Lobster.'

"You know, even after seven years, you still haven't changed very much." Wendy pouted. "You're still sour puss."

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Heh, nothing!"

Carla grumbled something under her breath as Wendy giggled. _'At least she isn't depressed anymore..' _the white feline thought.

The bluenette's attitude quickly changed as she found herself feeling very impatient about something, or more specifically, someone. "I hope Natsu-san comes back soon.." the Sky Dragon Slayer sighed.

"So you're finally going to tell him?" the Exceed asked, noticing the change in her partner's voice.

Wendy's eyes became a little downcast, but she smiled nonetheless. "Yes..I know now that he isn't meant for me, but I still want him to know how I feel..so I can finally move on. I still want to be friends with him after all."

It hurt Carla to hear her closest friend say that, but she knew as well that it was for the best. These matters were always so delicate, and usually having someone else help you resulted in more problems than solutions. In the end, it was just another chapter that Wendy needed to close the page on. "Don't give up Wendy, I'm sure you'll find the guy that's right for you." she assured her partner.

The bluenette smiled. "Thank you Carla."

Down below with Lucy and her group, Happy was describing the mysterious young man to Levy and her team, who had stopped by to have a chat with the others.

"Aye! He has grey hair and deep blue eyes that look like they could stare into your soul!" the Exceed went on to describe, rather creepily.

The two other members of Team Shadow Gear, Jet and Droy, felt a little unnerved, but Levy was somewhat intrigued by Happy's description of the mage.

"What kind of clothing was he wearing?" the bluenette asked.

The blue feline thought for a moment. "His clothes were kinda like Natsu's, except they looked a little more..foreign." he explained. "I think that maybe he's not from Fiore, probably from another country or continent."

Levy's eyes suddenly lit up. "Maybe he knows how to speak and write in a different language! I could ask him to teach me!" she chirped.

Gajeel grunted in displeasure at her remark. "Why are you suddenly interested in this guy? Got a crush on him or something?"

"No I don't, you big jerk!" Levy scowled at the dragon slayer. "I'm just interested in what kind of knowledge and information he knows." she said matter of factly.

Lucy giggled. "You know, despite never having seen the guy in person, I'm actually a little interested in meeting him myself."

"That, or you're hoping that he'll become your boyfriend." Happy snickered, making the blonde's face turn several shades of red.

"Shut up you damn cat!"

Everyone laughed at the interaction between Lucy and the Exceed. During their exchange, Lucy attempted to peg the feline with a mug, only to miss and hit Elfman in the back of the head. Said person grew furious and grabbed the person nearest him and threw the poor bastard across the guild hall, hitting Fried who was posing for Reedus; the Rune Mage in turn threw a chair at a group of wizards sitting at a round table. The chair ended up knocking their beer mugs out of their hands, spraying everyone with booze, and so on. After the rest fell like dominos, the guild erupted into one of their famous fight as everyone began to pummel one another senseless. Lucy, Mira, Levy and Happy hid behind the bar to avoid incoming projectiles.

"Look what you did, Lu-chan!" Levy cried as a random member landed right next to the group.

Lucy screamed when another member came crashing head first through the counter. "I'm sorry, I had no idea this would happen!"

While the two girls worried for their lives, Happy stared at the sight nonchalantly. "It looks like you pulled a page from Natsu's book, Lucy. Normally he's the one who ends up starting a fight."

"My, my.." Mira giggled, a thousand megawatt smile plastered across her face. "Seems like he's been rubbing off on you Lucy."

"That has nothing to do with this!" the blonde yelled.

While the chaos and mayhem ensued, Makarov could hear the entire commotion from his office. The man sighed and rubbed his temples to ease his headache as he exited his office. The Titan Mage was half way down stairs, intent on punishing his 'children', when an all too familiar voice boomed from the guild doors.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Everyone stopped, even the objects and people flying in the air froze into place. Like machines, the members all turned their heads to a sight none of them wanted to see; Erza. A mixture of surprise and fear filled the air, surprise because of how quickly Erza had returned from her mission, and fear for the punishment she would begin to deliver to each and every single of one of them. Natsu, who was accompanying Titania, did his best not to laugh at the others for having started a guild fight, and without him for once! The dragon slayer found it a little ironic; he expected the guild to be in one piece when he returned since he was the cause of almost ninety-nine percent of the fights that went on, but instead he found its members in the middle of destroying everything inside. He glanced over at Gajeel and Gray, and almost burst into laughter when he saw the horrified looks on their faces.

_'Oh man, so this must be how it's like when Erza catches us doing something bad.'_ Natsu thought with a snicker. _'I should go on missions with her more often.'_

Erza glared sternly at the entire guild before she went off on them full force. "We leave for one day, and this happens? You should all be ashamed of yourselves! I can't believe after all these years that you still act like immature children!" Titania howled. The next five minutes consisted of the red-head lecturing everyone to death, while Natsu simply smirked at all them as he stood proudly next to Erza.

**_'Lucky bastard!'_** they all thought.

Mira, oblivious to Erza's rampant lecturing, popped up from behind the bar and greeted the two wizards. "Natsu, Erza, welcome back." she said with a smile.

"Yo!" Natsu grinned back at the white-haired mage.

Erza visibly relaxed and returned the smile. "Thank you Mira, its good to be back." she said before turning to the guild once again. "Despite what has happened, I am willing to forgive you all in the meantime, but don't let this happen again." she finished.

The entire guild let out a collective sigh of relief, having averted the wrath of Titania, before they all started cleaning up the mess that had been created in the wake of their fight. It was at that moment that a person, one that none of them had ever seen before, walked through the guild doors. The person was a lightly tanned male, no older than eighteen, with grey hair and eyes as blue as the sky. In contrast, the person's clothing was black, with blue trimmings on his long-sleeved coat and a blue sash around his waist, with black pants. The only thing he seemed to be carrying on his person was a green backpack.

"Hey.." Jet said to Droy as they finished flipping a table over. "Who's that guy?"

The rather large mage turned his head and looked. "Don't know, never seen him before."

Everyone took notice of their visitor, and they were all a little surprised to see Natsu and Erza talking so casually to the young man.

"Sorry about that." the visitor said to the red-head and pinkette. "Sonia is still really nervous, so it took a while to convince her to come in."

Natsu grinned. "No worries man, we'll help her get over that fear of her's."

"Where is she?" Erza asked, looking around for signs of black Exceed.

The grey haired boy rubbed his neck sheepishly. "She's hiding in my backpack.."

The conversation was cut short when Makarov, having just made his way downstairs, came to greet his two brats. "Natsu, Erza. I'm grateful that you both returned unharmed, though I am a little surprised to see you back so quickly." the Master said with a chuckle.

"Hey Gramps!" the pink haired mage said with a grin.

Titania nodded. "It seemed that luck was on our side during this mission."

The Sixth Master nodded before turning to his new visitor. "So you are the young man I've heard of that saved my children lives." Makarov could tell the boy was a little uneasy when he looked at him.

"It was nothing." the young man replied with a faint smile before he bowed his head. "You must be Master Makarov, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Makarov waved his hand. "Now, now, no need to be so formal, it makes me feel old." the old man joked heartily, making the visitor feel more at ease. "Follow me to my office, you and I have much to discuss."

The young man frowned slightly, but nodded. He then turned to Erza. "Do you mind looking after Sonia for me?" he asked the scarlet woman, who nodded in response.

The entire guild watched curiously as the young man opened his back pack and gently reached in to pull something from within. That something turned out to have black fur with white spots, wearing a white dress with little suns patterned all over and to top it all off, there were cat ears and a tail. Everyone turned to Happy and then Carla, before looking back at the feline in the young man's hands; it was a female Exceed.

"Sonia.." the visitor began. "I'm going to go talk with Makarov in private, so Erza is going to look after you for a bit, okay?"

The Exceed nodded, shaking slightly. She seemed a little terrified than anything else, though she visibly relaxed when the boy smiled at her warmly to reassure her. The young man set Sonia down the her feet before following Makarov upstairs, ignoring the stares that were directed at him. He was obviously not one for attention, that was for certain.

"He must be the one.." Wendy, who was still on the second floor with Carla, watched with curious eyes as the grey haired boy and her Master walk up to the second floor and into the hallway behind her. Her brown orbs kept their gaze on him until he reached the end of the hall, standing right outside Makarov's office. Before going inside, however, the young man noticed Wendy's peculiar stare and turned to look at her. After a moment of looking at the bluenette, he gave her a quick smile before proceeding inside, leaving the girl to stare dumbly at the empty space in the hallway.

"Something catch your eye?" the white Exceed said teasingly, having caught how her partner looked at the boy.

Wendy remained silent for a few moments, before she realized her partner was trying to get through to her. "Huh?" she blinked.

Carla frowned. "Are you alright? You seem to be spacing out a bit there."

"Oh. Yea, sorry about that." the blunette laughed sheepishly before going to her thoughts. _'What was that just then? When we both looked at each other, I felt a strange feeling inside for a split second, and then it went away..' _After thinking for a few moments and coming up with nothing, Wendy brushed the thought aside for another time. "Let's go talk with Lucy-san and the others." she suggested to her partner.

"Very well then." Carla replied before she activated her Aera and followed her partner downstairs. By now the guild hall was abuzz with talk of their new visitor, many of them curious about who he may be and why Makarov wanted to speak with him.

"Everyone listen up!" Erza yelled, effectively silencing everyone. All eyes fell on the scarlet mage as she stood with her usual authoritarian posture. "As you have seen, we have visitors here, so behave yourselves." The red-head knelt down and picked Sonia up in her arms. "For now, I will introduce one of them. This is Sonia. As you can all see, she is an Exceed, a very pretty one I must add." The Exceed in the knight's arms blushed at that statement. "But she is also afraid of people, something she is working very hard on overcoming. That being said, I want everyone to make her feel welcomed, but also keep in mind of her uneasiness around people."

"**Aye, sir!**" Everyone saluted before they resumed their clean up.

Ten minutes later, the guild was cleaned up and sporting a new look, almost as if a fight had never broken out in the first place. Erza, Natsu and Sonia had settled down at a table to eat, when the rest of their friends crowded around them, eager to hear about the grey haired boy and his Exceed friend.

"Guys, this is Sonia." Erza introduced her. "Sonia, these are our friends; The blonde girl is Lucy, the boy with no shirt is Gray.." There was a short pause when Gray cursed himself as he looked for his shirt. "..Anyways, the blue haired girl with the blue and yellow vest is Wendy, and the white Exceed is her partner, Carla." The said wizards each said their hellos before Sonia greeted them back, albeit shyly, though she relaxed when she greeted Carla.

Natsu decided to continue where Erza left off. "And this here is my partner Happy!" he said proudly as the blue Exceed walked up to Sonia and raised his paw.

"Aye! It's nice to meet you Sonia." Happy chirped.

The black Exceed visibly relaxed again, seeing the familiar sight of yet another Exceed. "Likewise Happy, I've heard a lot about you and Carla during my time in the Exceed village."

At the mention of the other Exceeds, the blue cat and white cat both stared with wide eyes before they both adopted looks of guilt.

"Now that you brought it up, its been a while since we said we would visit Shagotte and the others.." Happy said as his ears drooped down. Carla nodded slowly in agreement.

Sensing their distress, Sonia gave the two Exceeds a reassuring smile. "Well, you could make it up to them by visiting sometime soon, I can show you were the village is at."

Happy and Carla both looked at the black Exceed with surprise, but then smiled as they both nodded. The surrounding wizards watched with happy smiles, glad that Sonia was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable around them now.

"Hey!" they all heard a voice yell out. "What about us?"

The others quickly turned to see Levy with her hands on her hips and Gajeel who seemed a bit disgruntled, having both been left out during the introductions.

"OH!" Lucy quickly apologized before looking over at Sonia. "These two are Levy and Gajeel." she said sheepishly.

The black Exceed smiled before bowing a little. "I-its a pleasure to meet you both."

The Solid Script mage gave back a peace sign. "The pleasure is all our's!"

Gajeel, who wasn't much for formalities, grunted but gave a small smirk. With the final introductions out of the way (Gajeel explained that Lily was at home, sick apparently), they began asking Sonia various questions and allowed her to ask a few of her own. After some time had passed, and everyone was better acquainted with the black Exceed, they went on to ask the all important question; who was that grey haired young man who was currently speaking with their master?

"His name is Alexi Bluemoon." Erza explained. "He's a mage from the Southern continent who somehow ended up in Fiore. Unfortunately, Alexi is suffering from memory loss at the moment, so he has no idea how he ended up all the way over here." The scarlet knight purposely left out the part about him being turned into a lacrima, figuring it was better for Alexi to explain it himself.

"He's a Dragon Slayer." Natsu said abruptly, already knowing that they were going to ask what type of mage Alexi is. The wizards all gave varying expressions; Lucy and Levy looked surprised, Gajeel was grinning at the thought of being able to fight another dragon slayer, and Wendy had a thoughtful expression. Happy glanced over at Carla who simply shrugged, not really knowing what to think of the revelation.

"So he had something to do with what happened to you guys on that job two days ago?" Levy asked curiously.

Natsu nodded. "Gramps thinks he might know something about those bastards that tried to steal our magic."

Everyone remained silent for a moment as they each wondered the same thing. Where are Serpent Fang and Kornell, and what are they planning to do next?

* * *

**Author: Welp, there you have it.**

**Erza: How come you didn't post the chapter I typed?!**

**Author: Because, what you put down were the ingredients of how to make strawberry cake..**

**Erza: I think everyone should know the greatness that is strawberry cake. -Crosses arms-**

**Author: -sighs-**

**Gajeel: Oi, I was barely in this chapter!**

**Author: -Blinks- You actually read?**

**Gajeel: -Mutters- Now who's the cold hearted bastard..**

**Author: Hehe. Anyways, as always, leave your thoughts on the chapter and we'll see you all next chapter.**

**Erza: I still think my chapter would have been better..**

**Author and Gajeel: -Sweat drops-**


End file.
